BIO

Alana Holmberg is a visual artist based in Garramilla / Darwin. Her practice combines photography, motion, sound and text and her projects are both conceptual and documentary. Experimenting with performance, installation, and online platforms,

Alana’s work has been exhibited in Australia and abroad. Highlights include a commission from Parliament Victoria to make new large-scale photographic works for installation on the steps of Parliament during Photo 2022 International Festival of Photography, solo exhibitions at Counihan Gallery, Brunswick and Head On Festival of Photography, Sydney, and participation in group shows including ACTS I-VIII at Benalla Art Gallery and finalists show at Organ Vida International Festival of Photography, Museum of Modern Art Zagreb.

Alana’s work is held in private and public collections, including the Merri Bek Art Collection and State Library of Victoria collection of photobooks. She has received several grants, commissions and national awards for her work including the National Photographic Portrait Award (2019) at the National Portrait Gallery, the Australian Photobook of the Year (2022) for her first book Porch Diaries and The Pool Grant in 2017. She has also been a finalist in the William and Winifred Bowness Prize at Museum of Australian Photography (MAPh) and a nominee in the World Press Photo 6x6 Global Talent Program in 2017.

Alana is alumni of RMIT University, Melbourne (2014) and Danish School of Media and Journalism, Aarhus, Denmark (2015), and for several years lectured in visual storytelling at Photography Studies College (2017-2019). In her freelance work, Alana has been commissioned by The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME Magazine, Liberation.fr and The Guardian. Alana was a member of Oculi Collective from 2016-2024 and is a member of Women Photograph.

AWARDS, TALKS & NOMINATIONS

EXHIBITIONS, PERFORMANCES & COMMISSIONS

  • Porch Diaries, book exhibited in Manifesto, group show at Counihan Gallery, Brunswick, 2023

  • Porch Diaries, book exhibited at Specular Horizons, Kuwait, 2023

  • Idle Hours, Photo 2022 x Parliament Victoria Commission, Photo 2022 International Festival of Photography

  • We Look Poor, part of ACTS I-VII by Oculi, group show at Benalla Art Gallery, part of regional programming for Photo 2022 International Festival of Photography 2022

  • Porch Diaries, Counihan Gallery, Brunswick, 2021

  • Porch Diaries part of This Changes Everything (group show), Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, Katoomba, 2021

  • Porch Diaries & Letterboxes (live performance), Tempo Rubato Performance Space, Brunswick, 2021

  • This Time It’s Personal, group show at Sun Studios, Sydney, 2019

  • National Photographic Portrait Prize 2019, finalist touring exhibition, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, 2019

  • A Change In The Weather, single-channel video commission part of Common Good, group show at Museum of Art and Sciences (MAAS), Sydney, 2018

  • Resist Laughter, solo show at The Lost Ones Gallery, Ballarat, 2018

  • National Photographic Portrait Prize 2017, finalist touring exhibition, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, 2017

  • Bowness Contemporary Prize for Photography, finalist group show, Monash Gallery of Art, 2017.

  • Resist Laughter, Screenings Program at Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, Organ Vida Photography Festival, 2017

  • Resist Laughter, solo show at Special Group Studios, Feature Exhibition at HeadOn Photography Festival, Sydney, 2017

  • And Holland Had Tulipes, live performance with James Milsom, Unless You Will Symposium, 2017.

  • Crossover Web Documentary Festival, Denmark, 2016

  • Family.Life, Syracuse University and Alexia Foundation Project, USA, 2015

GRANTS & RESIDENCIES

  • Flourish Arts Recovery Grant, Moreland Arts, 2021

  • Sequana Partners & LUMAS Gallery Grant, 2020

  • MatchLAB, Creative Partnerships Australia, 2020/2021

  • Residency for RMIT Photography Alumni, 2018

  • The Pool Grant, The Pool Collective, 2017

CONTACT