Rebecca Najdowski is an American–Australian artist exploring how imaging technologies shape our perception of nature and the climate crisis. Using analogue and digital processes in experimental ways, her work challenges familiar modes of representation and invites new ways of seeing and sensing the environment.
Drawing on her background in both the American Southwest and her current base in Melbourne, Najdowski’s work reflects a deep awareness of place, ecology, and the entanglement of human and more-than-human systems. Her cameraless photographs, altered negatives, and digital scans uncover hidden textures and forms that disrupt familiar narratives of landscape imagery. This reimagining of photographic language transforms images into sites of inquiry—raising questions about our perception of the environment and our role in its care.
Alongside her artistic practice, Najdowski is an educator and researcher who fosters experimental approaches to environmental media. At RMIT University in Melbourne, she guides students in exploring expanded photographic practice, ecological awareness, and immersive technologies such as augmented reality. Her teaching highlights the potential of media not only to represent but also to transform our engagement with the climate emergency.
Her work has been exhibited internationally, including presentations at the Museum of Australian Photography, Belfast Photo Festival, Aperture Gallery in New York, and the Centre for Creative Photography in Arizona. She has also been recognised through residencies and fellowships such as the Fulbright Program in Brazil, where she developed projects that further investigated the intersections of imaging, environment, and cultural exchange.
✨ Something exciting is on the horizon… stay tuned for September 2026, when Rebecca will be part of a special collaboration with Art Voyage. ✨
2025
2025
2025
2023
Photo Credit To Katherine Williams
2022
2020
2020
Photo Credit To Mark Ashkanasy
2020
Photo Credit To Mark Ashkanasy
2020
Photo Credit To Mark Ashkanasy
Highlights
Solo Exhibitions
2022 Deep Learning the Climate Emergency, Fed Square Digital Facade, Melbourne, Australia
2022 Ambient Pressure, Belfast Photo Festival, Botanic Gardens, Belfast, Northern Ireland
2020 Inverted Landscapes, Fiona and Sidney Myer Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2018 Interference Pattern, Horsham Regional Art Gallery, Horsham, Australia (two-person)
2018 Interference Pattern, Perth Centre for Photography, Perth, Australia (two-person)
2017 Give Them Distance, c3 Contemporary Art Space, Melbourne, Australia
2014 Desert Pictures, Lionel Rombach Gallery, Tucson, AZ, USA
2014 untitled (proposition), Steinfeld Warehouse, Tucson, AZ, USA
2013 Above/Below, S.H.E.D. Projects, Oakland, CA, USA
2010 Spectra, Hyde Street Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
Select Group Exhibitions and Screenings
2024 New Photobooks from Australia (display), Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England
2024 Strange Weather, UniSC Art Gallery, Sippy Downs, Australia
2023 Shifter, Museum of Art and Culture, yapang, Lake Macquarie, Australia
2023 Strangers to/in/of/… this world, Harry Wood Gallery, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
2023 Wild Hope: Conversations for a Planetary Commons, RMIT Design Hub Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2023 Regenerate, Noorderlicht Photo Biennale, Museum Belvédère, Heerenveen, Netherlands
2022 Why Color?, The Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ, USA
2022 States of Disruption, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, Australia
2022 Return to Nature, Museum of Australian Photography, Melbourne, Australia
2022 Athens Photo Festival, Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece
2021 The Censored Exhibition, Copenhagen Photo Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark
2020 Encontros da Imagem — International Photography Festival, Galeria do Paço da UMinho, Braga, Portugal
2020 Posthuman PUBLICS, Project Space, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
2019 CURRENTS 2019: Reimagined Histories | Rewritten Futures, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA, USA
2019 The Qualities of LIGHT, The Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ, USA
2019 Beyond Boundaries, Aperture Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2018 New Psychedelics, Humble Arts Foundation NY, online
2018 I Can See for Miles, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, Australia
2017 A Field-Guide to the Stars, Ballarat International Foto Biennale, Ballarat, Australia
2017 #postfuture journey / Athens Digital Art Festival, Athens International Airport, Greece
2017 FORMAT Festival: Habitat, Derby, England
2016 Victory, Gaffa Photo Festival, Gaffa, Sydney, Australia
2015 New Acquisitions, The Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ, USA
2015 Talking to Strangers, Simultan, Timisoara, Romania
2015 Videograma: Territorio y Ciudad, UJTL, Bogota, and Barrio Granada, Cali, Colombia
2015 Digital Native Film Festival, The Front, New Orleans, LA, USA
2015 Radical Color, Newspace Center for Photography, Portland, OR, USA
2014 Fauna, Smith Andersen North Gallery, San Anselmo, CA, USA
2014 Night Contact, Brighton Photo Biennial, Brighton, England
2014 Set in Motion: Video Art & Experimental Film, Purdue University Fountain Gallery, Lafayette, IN, USA
2014 Trestle Video Art Screening, Trestle Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, USA
2014 X Media Art Monographic Show, Festival Internacional de la Imagen, Manizales, Colombia
2014 Return of the Winter Wrens, Nightingale Gallery, East Oregon University, La Grande, OR, USA
2013 Crystal Palace, Center for the Digital Arts, SUNY Westchester Com College, Peekskill, NY, USA
2013 Faculty Exhibition, University of Arizona Art Museum, Tucson, AZ, USA
2013 Wood Anniversary, The Art Gym, Marylhurst University, Marylhurst, OR, USA
2013 Thinking Like the Universe, Hatch Gallery, Oakland, CA, USA
2012 InLight, 1708 Gallery, Richmond, VA, USA
2012 Crystal Palace, ArtSpace, New Haven, CT, USA
2012 New Codes* / Athens Digital Art Festival, Athens, Greece
2012 Kaleidoscope, ArtPadSF, Hungryman Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
2011 Hypothesis, The Lab, San Francisco, CA, USA
2010 Peripheral Vision, Togonon Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
2010 Golden State, RVCA, San Francisco, CA, USA
2010 Everything Never Goes Away, Lost Coast Culture Machine, Ft. Bragg, CA, USA
2010 MFA Thesis Exhibition, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA, USA
2010 Hearsay of the Sun, Queens Nails Projects, San Francisco, CA, USA
2010 Groundswell, Kala Gallery, Berkeley, CA, USA
Residencies
2019 Banff Centre Artist Residency “Digital Promises”, Banff, Canada
2013/15 Artist Fellow, The Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ
2014 Artist Residency, Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA
2013 Artist Residency, Signal Fire, Montana
2013 Artist Residency, Institute for Electronic Arts, Alfred University, New York
2012 Artist Residency, Signal Fire, Oregon, USA
2010/11 Fulbright Fellowship, Installation Art, Brazil
2010/11 Artist Residency, CAPACETE, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Press
2022 Widisto, Aushaf. “Postscript for a Postscript.” Review of SPECTRA: Multiplicity 2022, Australian Network for Art & Technology. Web.
2022 “The Voice of Nature: Rebecca Najdowski.” ARTDOC Magazine, June 8. Web.
2021 Neave, Kate. “Future Refresh: A Studio Visit with Rebecca Najdowski” for “Unearthed: Eco-visionaries” series, OpenLab (interview). Web.
2021 Dunne, Matt. “Rebecca Najdowski.” Tending to the Garden (interview). Web.
2019 Hernandez, Ciel. “Weathering Photographs: Ambient Pressure by Rebecca Najdowski.” Lomography Magazine, April 15. Web.
2019 Lachowskyj, Cat. “Ambient Pressure.” LensCulture. Web.
2015 Crum, Maddie. “Meet the Contemporary Photographers Experimenting with ‘Radical Color’.” The Huffington Post, May 25. Web.
2015 Kail, Ellyn. “Electrifying Photograms Made from Desert Minerals, Flora, and Fauna.” Feature Shoot, April 23. Web.
2013 Motley, John. “Signal Fire Heats up Artists’ Connection to Nature, Wood Anniversary.” Wood Anniversary review, The Oregonian, March 8. Print.
2011 “Photograms by Rebecca Najdowski.” Juxtapoz Magazine, August 29. Web.
2011 Hodgson, Simon. “Moving Pictures: Rebecca Najdowski Reflects on Her Fulbright in Brazil.” California College of Arts News, July 18. Web.
2010 Baker, Kenneth. “Cameraless ‘pictures’.” Peripheral Vision review, San Francisco Chronicle, October 16. Print.
2010 Tilghman, Parker. “Illusive and Stunning.” Peripheral Vision review, Art Slant, October 11. Web.
2010 Cheng, DeWitt. “Kala Gallery’s Rising Tide.” Groundswell review, East Bay Express, June 9. Web.
2010 Beltrane, JD. “Pay Attention.” CCA MFA exhibition review, SF Gate, May 14. Web.