BIOGRAPHY

• Born Alpha

• Julian Ashton, Sydney

• Queensland College of Art, Brisbane

• Co-Director, E.M.U., experimental art space, Brisbane

• Atelier Dalmas, Paris

• Lived and worked in Europe

• Co-Director AGLASSOFWATER, Brisbane

• New Image Research Award, Australian Film Commission
• Premier's Encouragement Award
• REMM Art Award

• VA/CB Overseas Development Grant
• Qld. Ministry of Arts Project Grant

• Prize-winner, Mary MacKillop: A Tribute, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney

• Fellowship Residency, P.S.1 Studio, Institute of Contemporary Art, New York

• Arts Queensland Professional Development Grant

• Master of Fine Arts degree, Queensland University of Technology

• Australian Representative, Biennale of Sydney

• UFO, Public Art Commission , West End, Brisbane

• Residency, Walter Reid Cultural Centre, Rockhampton

• Board member, Artworlkers Management Committee

• AlphaStationAlphaVille, Professional Development Grant, Arts Queensland

• Artist in Residence, Central Queensland University, Rockhampton
  
  
  
  Luke has guided the Pope Alice Xorporation in managing the earthly affairs of Her Divine Holiness Pope Alice, Spiritual Leader of Mu etc, etc, from the early 1970s to date. He is Head of the Supreme Council for Antiquities of Mu and Keeper of the Papal Wunderkammer. He remains Her Divine Holiness' trusted servant, amanuensis and camerlingo.

  (see www.popealice.com for further details)

  Luke is a regular contributer to Heyoka Magazine

  (seewww.heyokamagazine.com for further details)

  interview by John LeKay

  (see http://heyokamagazine.com/heyoka.19.lukeroberts.interview.htm)

  Luke is represented by Milani Gallery Brisbane and John Buckley Gallery Melbourne

  SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

• AlphaStationAlphaville, photobased and video documentation of ongoing projects staged mainly in Central Western Queensland assited by John Elliott
  

• Does this show make my arse look big?, conceptual fashion-based exhibition proposed for a publicly funded artspace

• You Are Not Alone, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
• Alpha Paintings (Frontiers), Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane

• Paradise Regained: Headlands and Skylands, Redland Art Gallery
• Luke Roberts Is Dead, conceptual event

• Arrivedeci Rivoli, Bellas Gallery Brisbane

• Missing Person: Alice Jitterbug Photographed, Bellas Gallery

• Mu Pavilion Installation, Sydney Biennale, MCA, Sydney.
• Aloha Eloha, Stranger Than Fiction , Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney
• Venice Paintings/ Alpha Paintings, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane

• 1+1=8, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane

• Dressed up for Paradise (Beyond the Great Divide), Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
• Forbidden Universe, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane

• Snakes and Aliens, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
• Mu Consciousness raising exercises and Pope Alice sightings... Sala Diaz, San Antonio and Texas USA

• Clutch, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
• Dispersion, Randall Street Studio, Brisbane

• WUNDERKAMMER/KUNSTKAMERA, Gallery 14 Project, Queensland Art Gallery

• Lot 204: Luke Roberts, a Closet, a Painting, a Duchesse and a pair of oversize hand carved wooden salad servers, Martin Browne Fine Art, Sydney
• Lot 62: POSTCARDS FROM ALPHAVILLE (Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft) POST JOHNSTONE DIASPORA/Lorraine, My Heart is Full, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane

• All Souls of the Revolution (detail) + Objects of My Affection, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne

• 18 Paintings in Search of a Glossary (Life), Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
• The Wonder of You, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane

• The Veto of Reason, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane

• Wunderkammer, State Library of Queensland
• Objects of My Affection, Site, Brisbane

• Without Closure, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
• Artist's Videos, National Arts Week, Brisbane

• Logic Assassinates, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane

• 1+1=3, ongoing photographic work

• Plan 9, The Compartners, Amsterdam
• Touring Exhibition, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs

• Name Dropping, St. Olofspoort, Amsterdam

• Touring Exhibition, Queensland Arts Council

• Der Kunstler Als Narcis/Das Leben Ist Kunst Ist Kitsch Screening and Discussion of the Artist's own films, Hannover Fachhochschule + Braunsweig Film Academie, Fed Rep. Germany

• Alpha Centenary, commemorative envelopes, Australia Post

• Luke Roberts, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane

• Pope Alice Presents Luke Roberts, Spring Hill Gallery, Brisbane

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

• Pingyao International Photography Festival, Pingyao, China
  
• James Sourris Collection, Briabane Club, Brisbane
  

• National Self-Portrait Prize, University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane
• Wunderkammer detail, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
• I Am the Message, Lismore Regional Gallery, Lismore
• Quirky: from the collection, Newcastle Region Art Gallery, Newcastle
• I have not been myself lately... Queensland College of Art Gallery, Brisbane
• Soft Sculpture, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
• Artscape: The Art Life: Who Made Who?, ABC TV

• Oooga-booga, Pope Alice Xorporation with Proppa Now, George Petelin Gallery

• Morimura, Mishima. Roberts Art Gallery New South Wales
• The Visitors, Penrith Regional Gallery
• Multiple Personality, MOP, Sydney

• Queensland Live, Queensland Art Gallery touring exhibition
• Colonial to Contemporary, Queensland College of Art, Brisbane

• Baroque and Neo-Baroque. The Hell of the Beautiful, Domus Artium (DA2) Salamanca, Spain
• Beyond Real, Australian Centre for Photography
• Points of View: Australian Photography 1985-95, Art Gallery of New South Wales

• Don't call it Performance, El Museo del Barrio, New York
• Sailor Style, National Maritime Museum, Sydney
• the world may be post-dated: Luke Roberts and Jennifer Maklem, Galerie de l'UQAM, Montreal, MacLaren Art Centre, Barrie, Canada

• Parthenogenesis, Ivan Doughety Gallery, Sydney
• No lo Llames Performance, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, and touring Spain
• One Square Mile, Museum of Brisbane
• the world may be post-dated: Luke Roberts and Jennifer Maklem, University of Waterloo Art Gallery and touring Canada.

• 13th Biennale of Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
• Stranger than Fiction, ACP, Sydney

• PS1 National and International Studio Artists exhibition, PS1, Institute of Contemporary Art, Clocktower, New York
  

• The Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery
• Gramercy Park International Hotel Art Fair, New York
• ARCO'96 International Contemporary Art Fair, Madrid
• Asia-Pacific Hotel Art Fair, Brisbane
• Recollection, Brisbane City Art Gallery and Museum

• Australian Perspecta 1995, Art Gallery of New South Wales
• Mary MacKillop: A tribute, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, New Parliament House, Canberra

• Remain in Light, AGLASSOFWATER project, Blaxland Gallery, Sydney

• Happiness is a Loaded Brush. Outside the Walls of Jericho (with Beattie Millis), Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
• Dislocations: Body, Memory, Place (curator Marcus O'Donnell) Access Gallery, National Gallery of Victoria

• Eating People is Wrong, (with Scott Redford), AGLASSOF WATER, Brisbane

• All Souls Day (with Urszula Szulakowska), Artspace, Sydney
• Slow Information (with Scott Redford), Arch Lane Public Art, Brisbane
• Running Man, (with Scott Redford), AGLASSOFWATER, Brisbane

• The World Is Full of Objects (with Scott Redford), slide documentation
• Redford/Boyd/Roberts (with Scott Redford and Adam Boyd), Arson Street, St. Kilda, Melbourne.

LECTURES, SEMINARS ETC

• Acceptance speech, Artist in Residence, Ron Smyth Bidg, Central Queensland University, 18 August 2010
  2008
  • Talking Photography: 2008 Queensland Festival of Photography with Mike Parr, Fiona Foley and Tony Albert University of Queensland Art Museum 6th April
  • "Who is Andy Warhol", Queensland Artist Talk, Warhol Exhibition, Gallery of Modern Art 15 March
  2007
  • "The right to be different", Culture, Sex and the Political Dimension, session, ARC Biennial program, Queensland University of Technology, October

  PERFORMANCES

  Popepeople, Australian Perspecta 1991, Art Gallery of New South Wales, performance as part of artist’s exhibition, Australian Perspecta 1991
  
  Pope Alice Tour, Australian Perspecta 1995, Art Gallery of New South Wales, performance as part of artist’s exhibition, Australian Perspecta 1995
  
  Surrealism: Revolution by Night, Queensland Art Gallery. Performance at press launch for travelling exhibition of European Surrealism Masterworks.
  
  Pope Alice, 1993, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
  
  Hypnotism, Brisbane City Hall. Performance as part of exhibition.
  
  Peoples Delegation from the Lost Continent of Mu, Museun of Contemporary Art, 2002 Biennale of Sydney. Performance as part of artist’s installation for Biennale of Sydney 2002.
  
  Aloha Eloha, 2002, Stranger than Fiction, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney. Performance as part of group exhibition.
  
  clutch, Pope Alice, 1996 Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane. Exhibition of Pope Alice and Archangel photographic performance works.
  
  You Are Not Alone, 2006. Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane. Pope Alice theatre based performance of one hour duration with sound, visuals and various assisting perfomers.
  
  Fridapeople, 2001, National Gallery of Australia. Performance for opening night of Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Mexican Modernism.
  
  Popepeople, 1993, Gilbert and George event, Brisbane. Performance celebrating Gilbert & George’s visit to Brisbane. Private function Spring Hill Baths.
  
  Popepeople, 1995, Pierre et Giles event, Roslyn Oxley Gallery, Sydney. Appearance and photography at opening night Pierre et Giles exhibtion.
  
  Popepeople, 1997, DIA Centre for the Arts, New York. Appearance with Quentin Crisp and photography at opening night of Tracey Moffatt’s exhibition.
  
  Mu Embassy and Wunderkamera, PS1, Center for Contemporary Art, New York, performance and group exhibition.
  
  Pope Alice performance have taken place from the late 1970s, including Pope Alice presents Luke Roberts at the Spring Hill Gallery in 1980. Pope Alice made a press appearance for the launch of Luke Roberts’ exhibition, as well as appearing in various locations around the city and on opening night as a special guest who opened the show.
  
  Regular appearances at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras
  
  
  

  PUBLICATIONS

  selected2010
• Anne Marsh, 'LOOK. Contemporary Australian Photography Since 1980'
  
• Front cover image, The Story of Mary MacKillop, Doyle, El-Hage, Walsh, pub. John Garratt Publishing.
  
  2009
• Geddes, Kezia, I Am the Message, exhibition catalogue
  
• Joan Kerr, A Singular Voice: Essays on Australian Art and Architecture, From Alpha to Boulia...p 84/87
  
• Joseph Brennan, Fairytales, the visual art of gay men, DNA #118, October 2009
  
• Daniel Mudie Cunningham, Queer Today, Gone Tomorrow, Art and Australia, Winter 2009
  
  1975-2008
• NEW, exhibition catalogue, University of Queensland Art Museum, 2008
  
• Vanitas: Pope Alice Presents Luke Roberts, monograph pub. Institute of Modern Art 1999
• Queensland Live, exhibition catalogue, Queensland Art Gallery 2005
• Points of View, Photographay 1985-95, exhibition catalogue Art Gallery New South Wales 2005
• Biennale of Sydney 2002, exhibition catalogue
• Australian Perspecta 1991, exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery New South Wales
• Australian Perspecta 1995, exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery New South Wales
• Urszula Szulakowska, feature article eyeline #10, Dec 1989
• Michele Helmrich, feature article, eyeline 1995
• Louise Martin-Chew, exhibition catalogue for Paradise Regained: Headlands and Skylands 2005
• Photofile, Australian Centre for Photography 2004 (first issue of the new look Photofile)
• Alpha Paintings (Frontiers), artist statement, exhibition catalogue, Philip Bacon Galleries, 2006
• The Visitors, exhibition catalogue, Penrith Regional Gallery, 2007
• STUDIO: Australian Painters on the Nature of Creativity, R. Ian Lloyd and John macDonald, 2007
• John LeKay, interview heyokamagazine 2008
http://www.heyokamagazine.com/heyoka.19.lukeroberts.interview.htm
• Pope Alice, religion, heyokamagazine 2008 -
  Pope Alice Xorporation is a regular contributer to heyokamagazine.com http://www.heyokamagazine.com/heyoka_magazine.28.popealice.htm

PRESS

Mirror Mirror, Courier-Mail, Dec 2009

COLLECTIONS

• Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
• Gold Coast City Art Gallery
• Griffith University
• Harriet Jane Neville-Rolfe Gallery, Alpha
• James Hardie Collection, State Library of Queensland
• Kamloops Art Gallery, BC, Canada
• Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
• Museum of Brisbane
• National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
• National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
• Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
• Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane
• Rockhampton Art Gallery
• University Art Museum, University of Queensland, Brisbane
• University of Southern Queensland
• Newcastle Region Art Gallery

VIDEO / FILM / PERFORMANCE DOCUMENTS

2009
Artscape: The Art Life: Who Made Who?, ABC TV 24 March

AlphaStationAlphaVille project documentation Dec 2008-Jan 2009, June 2009, Sept-Oct 2009.

2008
Sixty Minutes, Channel 9, 20 July 2008

Pope Alice announces KISS-IN YouTube I min 46 secs

Jezebel Decibel and POPE ALICE Mardi GrasYouTube 6 mins 10 secz

2007
Debaptism Ceremony: Act of Apostasy YouTube 7 mins 6 secs

All-Seeing EyE YouTube13 secs

Sacred Whore’s Prayer YouTube 1 min 55 seca

Pacifica (Lemuria) YouTube3 mins 15 secs

You are not alone YouTube 7min 10 secs

2006
You are not alone, video with Jandy Rainbow, music jandy Rainbow concept and art direction Luke Roberts

You are not alone, unedited performance doc camera Ben Wickes and Jeremy Hines,

Alice Jitterbug/Rainbow Horse music Carmela Tal Baron

2004?
UFO film Christopher Dolan. Film of Luke Roberts’ public artwork UFO and Pope Alice visitation

2002
Pacifica: Greetings from Amnesia/Wait for me Juanita/Wangatatta Wahine concept and art direction Luke Roberts camera, and editing Daniel Sala.

2000
Ecce homo: These are our bodies, this is our blood, video document of Pope Alice opening performance for Luke Roberts, Ecce homo: These are our bodies, this is our blood Thurs 24th Feb 2000, original document held by Artspace Sydney

ABC national TV News 7pm, Friday 3rd March 2000, Pope Alice intervention, St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney


1999
Pope Alice appearance ‘Up in the Sky’ ABC TV July 25 1999 8pm Tracey Moffatt in New York, dir Jane Cole

1998
Infinito, digital film (unedited) Franco Mondini’ Ruiz’s Botanica, San Antonio November 1998

Dear Mr Crisp, digital film, October 1998

Pope Alice Flame Tree (working title/ unedited) with Paul Andrew December 1998

Pope Alice Homeless, with Paul Andrew December 1998


1997
Wunderkamera, Pope Alice in Texas, 6-7 Feb 1997 plus interview Peter Gonzales-Falcon 16 Feb 1997 (NTSC) Hi8

Ricki Lake Show, Luke Roberts ask “The Shoe Question”,
New York 1997 VHS (PAL)

Millenium Shift, producer Ian Lang, Griffith University, VHS (NTSC) 54 minutes, aired SBS 1997

1996
Pope Alice in Spain (ARCO) 1996 video 8?

Hypnotism, Pope Alice performance, Brisbane City Hall,
1996 23minutes VHS (NTSC) Griffith Artworks

Pope Alice performance, Volt ‘96, Sh...Shbango, the Roxy, Brisbane 4 Sept 1996 by Ben Wickes

1995

Pope Alice Tour, Australian Perspecta 1995, Art Gallery of New South Wales 4 Feb 1995 video 8

Pope Alice Tour 4 Feb & 3 Mar 1995 plus with Pierre et Gilles 8 Feb 1995 video 8

White Ball footage Pope Alice appearance Brisbane 1995, by Ben Wickes


1994

Mardi Gras 1994? ABC True Stories Sydney commercial VHS copy


1993
Beyond the Great Divide/Mama Papa is Wounded,
Pope Alice Queensland Art Gallery performance, Fringe Surrealism 5 June 1993

The Affectionate Punch, Pope Alice performance MCA, video Hi8, camera Tracey Moffatt, MCA, Sydney 1 August 1993.

Mardi Gras 1993? Sydney

1992
Bedevil, directed by Tracey Moffatt, Luke Roberts actor, 1992, feature film 35mm

1991
FRIDAPEOPLE Perspecta 1991,Art Gallery of NSW, copyright Dr. Jan Bruck? and the artist


1988
The Despair of the Parrot, edited performance document, Bellas Gallery 1988
camera Adam Boyd, VHS

My Dress Hangs There, performance document, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, camera Adam Boyd VHS


1984-87
Various footage taken in Amsterdam circa 1987 poor quality Super 8 film


1983
Nazissus directed by John Lee & Luke Roberts 1983 Super 8 film

Alice Springs Into Wonderland 1983-84 directed by Luke Roberts Super 8 film

Living Arthur Street On, 1983 directed by Luke Roberts Super 8 film

Pope Alice Plastik, 1983 directed by Luke Roberts Super 8 film


1980
“Pope Alice Presents Luke Roberts” Spring Hill Gallery Brisbane 1980
VHS 20? minutes

Pope Alice on the Haydn Report 1980 Channel O (any remaning record with Channel 0 / 10)

Pope Alice on Channels 7&9? News Reports Sept,1980


1977/8?
Portrait of Luke Roberts / Alice Jitterbug, directed by Sue Rattle, cinematography Jan Murray, whereabouts unknown
(1978? Starred in Sue Rattle’s film title unknown, portraits of 5 individuals of Sue’s choosing. Jan Murray dop, David Sandison still photographer. Whereabouts of film unknown. Some stills available.)

1974-78?
Various planned film projects planned and scripted with Des Lourigan et al, including Michael McCaffey only one actually partly realised
!1970s Film scripting (including ‘The Chartruese Emu’) and proposals with different people, particularly Des Lourigan. One small script taken to film (super 8?) Whereabouts of film unknown.)

1972
Art College film second or first year 1972, whereabouts unknown
(Small films made with second year art student peers as a QCA project. Worked in front and behind camera. Whereabouts of films unknown. Some stills available.

master digital tapes

A. Pope Alice QUT Post-graduate show Palma Rosa September (?) 1998 Village Twin and Story Bridge etc with Doug Hall and Michele Helmrich camera Douglas Watkins

1. New York October 1998

2. New York (beginning of Quentin footage at the end of this tape) October 1998

3. New York London Leicester (Quentin reading his mail at the beginning of this tape/leaving NY/arriving London/travelling around London in a taxi/journey to St Pancras Station and on to Leicester) October 1998

4. Leicester (missing tape) Andy Warhol performance/Frida Kahlo performance/Pope Alice performance The Abstract is always with us plus ambient Leicester takes. October-November 1998

5. Maastricht-Texas November 1998 Pope Alice performance in city centre of Maastricht, Donna Confetti’s exhibition at the Jan van Eyck Akademie. Coach trip to Aachen and onto Dusseldorf. Infinito (Franc’s shop) in San Antonio.

6. Texas-Mexico-Return Journey with Peter Gonzales-Falcon to La Pryor and onto Mexico (Eagle Pass and Piedre Negre (?)) to Australia November 1998.

(incomplete)