Alice Duncan (b.1991, Aotearoa) is a photographer, artist and teacher based in Naarm. Through her photographic practice, Alice exposes the multifaceted, ever-changing, and constructed nature of personal and cultural identities. Using a combination of past (analogue) and present (digital) photographic techniques, she layers images with past and present Australian histories to visualize the complexities of collectively living on colonised land.
Alice’s work has been exhibited across Australia and internationally, including at Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris), York Gallery of Art (UK), Pingyao Photography Festival (China), Bus Projects (Melbourne) and Queensland Centre for Photography.
In 2022, Alice was the recipient of the Nicolas Baudin Scholarship and undertook an artist-in-residency at the Cité des Arts in Paris, supported by the Institut Français. She has also been an artist in residence at AARK in Finland and the IFAM in Berlin.
Her work has been featured in Magnum, The Guardian, HAPAX Magazine and Art and Australia Magazine. In 2021, Alice was named in the ‘125 Contemporary Artists to Watch’ by Aesthetica Magazine (UK). Alice has been the recipient of an Ian Potter Cultural Trust grant (2023) and the Colin Nettlebeck Award (2022). Her work has been shortlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize (2021), the Black Prize (2021) and the Wyndham Art Prize amongst others.
Alice lectures in photography at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and also facilitates film photography workshops for young people in remote communities in Australia through the organisation Our Land, Our Lens.
contact: alicelucyduncan@gmail.com
Alice’s work has been exhibited across Australia and internationally, including at Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris), York Gallery of Art (UK), Pingyao Photography Festival (China), Bus Projects (Melbourne) and Queensland Centre for Photography.
In 2022, Alice was the recipient of the Nicolas Baudin Scholarship and undertook an artist-in-residency at the Cité des Arts in Paris, supported by the Institut Français. She has also been an artist in residence at AARK in Finland and the IFAM in Berlin.
Her work has been featured in Magnum, The Guardian, HAPAX Magazine and Art and Australia Magazine. In 2021, Alice was named in the ‘125 Contemporary Artists to Watch’ by Aesthetica Magazine (UK). Alice has been the recipient of an Ian Potter Cultural Trust grant (2023) and the Colin Nettlebeck Award (2022). Her work has been shortlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize (2021), the Black Prize (2021) and the Wyndham Art Prize amongst others.
Alice lectures in photography at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and also facilitates film photography workshops for young people in remote communities in Australia through the organisation Our Land, Our Lens.
contact: alicelucyduncan@gmail.com
Education
2020 - 2025 PhD Fine Art, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
2019 Master of Photography, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
2014 Bachelor of Fine Art, Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2025 The Time it Taks to Cast a Shadow, PhD completion exhibition, Site Eight Gallery, Melbourne
2023 Reversing the Lens, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris
2021 In Our Place, Gertrude Street Projection Festival, Melbourne
2021 Projection Art Festival, Centre for Ideas, Collingwood Yards, Melbourne
2021 Love It Or Leave It, Wide Open Road, Castlemaine
2019 Altermodern Archipelago, AARK Residence Exhibition, Korpo, Finland
2017 One more time, This time for real, Cut Thumb Gallery, Brisbane
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 The Time it Takes to Cast a Shadow, Smith+Gertrude, Collingwood
2023 The Edge, for the City of Melton, Caroline Springs Gallery, Melbourne
2022 Pingyao Photo Festival, Pingyao, China
2022 Encounters in a Dark Room, Intersect Gallery as part of Photo2022 Festival, Melbourne
2022 Climarte: Emergency, Action, Climarte Gallery Richmond, Melbourne
2022 Picnic at Ngannelong, Melbourne Centre for Projection Art, Collingwood Yards, Melbourne
2021 Milburn Prize for Landscape, Brisbane Institute of Art, Brisbane
2021 Aesthetica Art Prize, York Art Gallery, UK
2021 Picnic at Ngannelong, Gertrude Street Projection Festival, Melbourne
2021 Wyndham Art Prize, Werribee
2021 Ground Control, Richmond Town Hall, Melbourne
2020 Sunshine Coast Art Prize, Caloundra Regional Gallery, Queensland
2020 CLIP, Perth Centre for Photography, Perth
2020 Head On Festival, Sydney
2020 Lightscapes, Mebourne Central, Melbourne
2019 Pingyao Photo Festival, Pingyao, China
2015 Lightscapes, RMIT City Campus, Melbourne, Australia
2014 Strategic Memory Protection, Kings ARI, Melbourne, Australia
2014 Doubles, Institut für Alles Mögliche, Berlin,
2013 Eastern Standard Time, Queensland Centre for Photography, Brisbane, Australia
2013 Formation, Bus Projects, Melbourne
Awards and Grants
2024 Laura Bassi Post Graduate Award, Boston (US)
2024 Finalist, Macquarie Grous Emerging Art Prize (AUS)
2023 Colin Nettlebeck Scholarship, Institute for the Studies of French & Australian Relations (FR/AUS)
2022 Ian Potter Cultural Trust Grant, Ian Potter Foundation (AUS)
2022 City of Melbourne Annual Arts Grant (AUS)
2022 Nicolas Baudin Internship in France Laureate (FR)
2021 Finalist, Milburn Prize for Landscape, Brisbane Institute of Art (AUS)
2021 Finalist, Aesthetica Art Prize, York (UK)
2021 Finalist, Wyndham Art Prize, Werribee (AUS)
2021 Finalist, Nillumbik Contemporary Art Prize, Melbourne (AUS)
2021 Finalist, 66th Blake Prize, Sydney (AUS)
2020-2024 External Assessor, City of Melbourne
2019 Deans Award For Excellence, RMIT (AUS)
2014 Terry Cutler Acquisitive Award, VCA (AUS)
Artist in Residence
2023 Insitut Français x Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (FR)
2020 Situate Residency, Intersect, Melbourne (AUS)
2019 Archipelago Artist Residency, Korpo (FIN)
2014 Institut für Alles Mögliche, Berlin (GER)
Selected Writing and Publications
2024 Exploring Cross-Cultural Representations: French Children’s Literature and Australian Indigenous Culture, The French Australian Review No 75 (Australian Summer 2023–2024): 116–132.
2022 The Land Where the Crow Flies Backwards, HAPAX Magazine, Issue Two, UK
2020 100 Artists to Watch, Aesthetica Magazine, April.
2017 If You Saw The Back Of My Head, Would You Assume I Had A Face? Written in collaboration with Nicola Bryant for an exhibition of the same name at Bus Gallery, Melbourne.
2015 The space is not blank, the silence is not silent and the gaps between are not empty. A publication written for the exhibition Formation; a contemporary exploration of print practice in Australia.