Born in Alpha, Central Queensland, artist Luke Roberts has been at the fore of performance, photography, painting and installation for over five decades. His work pushes the boundaries of art, addressing his complex Catholic upbringing, sexuality, identity, gender and Queerness. Luke Roberts lives and works in Brisbane.
Luke Roberts



Camera: Alec Schultz
Copyright Pope Alice Xorporation/Luke Robert





Roberts has created works in many media, however photography has always been central to his practice. Much of his work is ‘photographic performance’. For Roberts, the photograph never offers a straight view of reality, but always an inverted, through-the-looking-glass one. These works collapse the personal and the political, the local and the cosmological, the religious and the irreligious, and past and future to offer a unique spin on themes of religion, sexuality, and human history.
Education
1971
- Julian Ashton, Sydney
1972/74
- Queensland College of Art
1996
- Fellowship Residency, P.S.1 Studio, Institute of Contemporary Art, New York
2001
- Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree, University of Technology, Brisbane
2002
- Australian representative, Sydney Biennale, Sydney
2012
- Australian Artist Scholar, the British School at Rome, Italy
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2025
- The Declaration and Canonisation of Marshall Malouf, Redland Performing Art Centre, Cleveland Australia
2024
- Luke Roberts: Beyond the Great Divide, Rockhampton Museum of Art, Rockhampton
2022
- Pope Alice: Transcendence, Dark Mofo 2022, Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), Tasmania
2021
- Pope Alice: Close Encounters, Dark Mofo 2021, Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), Tasmania
2016
- Margin through Centre, Fairweather Drawings, Milani Gallery, Brisbane
2014
- Kunstkamera, Anna Pappas Gallery, Melbourne
2013
- AMOROMA… Burning Love, Milani Gallery, Brisbane
2011
- AlphaStation/Alphaville, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney
2010
- AlphaStation/Alphaville, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
2006
- You Are Not Alone, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
2004
- Recent Works, Bellas Milani Gallery, Brisbane
- Arrivedeci Rivoli, Bellas Gallery Brisbane
2003
- Missing Person: Alice Jitterbug Photographed, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
2002
- Mu Pavillion Installation, Sydney Biennale, MCA, Sydney.
- Venice Paintings/Alpha Paintings, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
2001
- 1+1=8, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
2000
- Dressed up for Paradise (Beyond the Great Divide), Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
- Forbidden Universe, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
1997
- Snakes and Aliens, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
- Mu Consciousness raising excersizes and Pope Alice sightings. . . Sala Diaz, San Antonio and Texas USA
1996
- Clutch, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
- Dispersion, Randall Street Studio, Brisbane
1994
- WUNDERKAMMER/KUNSTKAMERA, Gallery 14 Project, Queensland Art Gallery
- Lot 204: Luke Roberts, A Closet(s), a Painting, a Duchesse and a pair of oversize handcarved wooden salad servers, Martin Browne Fine Art, Sydney
- Lot 62: POSTCARDS FROM ALPHAVILLE (Calling Occupants Of Interplanetry Craft)
- POST JOHNSTONE DIASPORA/Lorraine, My Heart is Full, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
1993
- All Souls of the Revolution (detail) + Objects of My Affection, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
1992
- 18 Paintings In Search Of A Glossary(Life), Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
- The Wonder of You, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
1991
- The Veto of Reason, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
1990
- Wunderkammer, State Library of Queensland
1989
- Without Closure, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
1988
- Logic Assassinates, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
1986
- Plan 9, The Compartners, Amsterdam
1985
- Name Dropping, St. Olofspoort, Amsterdam
1982
- Luke Roberts, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
1980
- Pope Alice Presents Luke Roberts, Spring Hill Gallery, Brisbane
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025
- You Are Here Too, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia
- Headland Revisited, Redland Art Gallery, Cleveland, Australia
2023
- Meet the artists, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane
2022
- Courage & Beauty, James C. Sourris Collection, QAGOMA
2021
- City in the Sun, Museum of Brisbane, Brisbane
2019
- The National: New Australian Art, Carriageworks, Sydney
2018
- Starting Young, Gallery of Children's Art, Brisbane
2017
- Unflinching Gaze: photo media and the male gaze, Bathurst Regional Gallery, NSW,
2016
- Sugar Spin: You, me, art and everything, Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art
- Bimblebox: art - science - nature, Logan Art Gallery, QLD
- Beyond the tower: 40 years and counting, University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane
2012
- Where You Live Now, Artist Scholar exhibition, British School at Rome, Italy
2005
- Paradise Regained: Headlands and Skylands, Redland Art Gallery
1998
- Site of Execution, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
1997
- National and International Studio Artists, Clocktower, MoMA PS1, New York
1996
- The Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery
- ARCO’96 International Contemporary Art Fair, Madrid
1995
- Australian Perspecta 1995, Art Gallery of New South Wales
1993
- Dislocations: Body, Memory, Place, National Gallery of Victoria
1991
- Australian Perspecta 1991, Art Gallery of New South Wales
1986
- Group exhibition, Grand Palais, Paris
Selected Collections
- Art Gallery of New South Wales
- Gold Coast City Art Gallery
- Griffith University
- State Library of Queensland
- Kamloops Art Gallery, British Columbia, Canada
- Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
- Museum of Brisbane
- National Gallery of Australia
- National Gallery of Victoria
- Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art
- Queensland University of Technology
- Rockhampton Museum of Art
- University Art Museum, University of Queensland
- University of Southern Queensland
Exhibitions
Off-site Exhibitions
May 29 – Aug 16, 2025various artists‘Collecting the Future: 50 Years of the Griffith University Art Collection’Griffith University Art Museum
Apr 12 – Jun 29, 2025Luke Roberts‘You Are Here Too’Institute of Modern Art
Jul 27 – Nov 3, 2024Luke Roberts‘Luke Roberts: Beyond the Great Divide’Rockhampton Museum of Art





