Simon Mordant AO is a prominent banker, art collector and philanthropist. The Australian changemaker is currently executive co-chairman at Luminis Partners, a corporate advisory and investment banking firm, and has made several significant donations to the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, where he is a founding member of the board. He is also vice chair at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA PS1) in New York and a member of the MoMA International Council.

Australia's 2024 entry to the Venice Biennale, Archie Moore's kith and kin was awarded a Golden Lion for Best National Participation. Recently, Mordant was in the news for his resignation from the position of international ambassador for Australia’s entry to the Venice Biennale in 2026, and his withdrawal of financial support. This came as a response to Creative Australia’s decision to drop Lebanese-Australian artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino as representatives of Australia at the upcoming edition of the international art event. The artist’s 2007 video installation, You, multiplied an image of the deceased former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, sourcing it from a 2006 television broadcast of a rally in Beirut. Sabsabi’s commentary on the power that the mainstream media holds in gesturing towards particular ideologies was read outside its artistic context in Creative Australia’s decision to rescind support for his Venice participation. Ultimately, it serves to keep a provocative work of art in the public eye nearly two decades after its creation.

We’ve only ever collected things that strike a chord in our heart. That could be sculpture, it could be neon, it could be a moving image…I don’t see virtual reality as any different to that. – Simon Mordant AO, art collector

Mordant visited New Delhi, India, in March 2025 to attend Epilogue, the final presentation of transnational art and human rights collective Engendered’s art exhibition series Desh Pradesh - At Home in the World. Epilogue was co-presented by STIR and vis-à-vis and was held at the STIR Gallery from March 24 – April 10, 2025. The show examined intersectionalities between tech, gender, regional identity and more through works by multiple artists, such as multimedia artist Ranbir Kaleka and artificial intelligence (AI) artist Harshit Agrawal and contemporary artist Puneet Kaushik. While in Delhi, Mordant sat down with STIR’s curatorial director, Samta Nadeem, for a conversation that spanned topics ranging from the relationship between art patrons and museums to the value of public-private partnerships in the art world and how new technologies may shape art engagement.

Mordant does not believe that private collectors shape art ecosystems. As he tells STIR, “I seek to acquire art that really has an impact on me at the time, and I seek to get to know the artists.” However, he does observe that there is greater interaction between the players in the international art world scene, which the art collector cites as being one of the biggest changes in the art world over the last three to four decades. Mordant is also pleased that there has been a slew of exhibitions featuring South Asian art in cities such as London. For instance, Indian artist Arpita Singh's Remembering at Serpentine Galleries is her first institutional solo show outside India, offering an overview of her 60-year career and building new audiences for South Asian art.

The art collector plays a significant role in art acquisitions at MoMA, which has begun adding VR (virtual reality) artworks to their collection in recent years. Speaking about his personal collection, he tells STIR, “We’ve only ever collected things that strike a chord in our heart. That could be sculpture, it could be neon, it could be a moving image…I don’t see virtual reality as any different to that. When I first engaged with virtual reality, which was probably ten years ago…One of the things that really attracted me to it was that you are completely immersed. You couldn’t be distracted by things around you.”

Mordant believes that art engagement in museums and galleries has developed an element of performativity owing to social media. He cites the example of thousands of audience members at the Louvre showing greater interest in taking photographs of the Mona Lisa rather than truly seeing the work. He reiterates his optimism about the role that VR will play in art engagement, saying, “The joy of virtual reality for me is you’re completely immersed in the experience, and you can’t be distracted.”

After a long and illustrious career straddling the art and finance worlds, the senior art patron shows no signs of slowing down and continues to keep a close watch on the evolution of cutting-edge technology in artmaking and art engagement. Simultaneously, Mordant uses his considerable voice in the space to champion artistic expression and sets an important example for others of his stature in the art world.