Nigel Borell is a curator, writer and artist specialising in Māori art in both customary and contemporary fields of research.

Key curatorial projects include The Māori Portraits: Gottfried Lindauer’s New Zealand, to deYoung Fine Arts Museum, San Francisco (2017), co-curating with Zara Stanhope Moa Hunter Fashions by Areta Wilkinson, for 9th Asia Pacific Triennial, QAGOMA, Brisbane (2018) and co-curating with Adriano Pedrosa Histōrias Indīgenas- Indigenous Histories at Museu de Art de, São Paulo, Brazil (2023) and KODE, Bergen, Norway (2024).

Borell curated the large survey exhibition Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki (2020-2021), where he was the Curator Māori art from 2015-2020.

He was the inaugural recipient of The New Zealand Art Foundation’s A Moment in Time – He Momo, awarded for curating the landmark exhibition Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art and made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori art in 2022. He is currently Curator Taonga Māori at The Auckland War Memorial Museum Tamaki Paenga Hira.