Dr Erica Seccombe

I am a practising artist with 30 years of experience working, teaching, and contributing to the sector. Working across the Canberra region, I reside in semi-rural NSW on the traditional lands of Ngambri, Ngunnawal, and Ngunnawal peoples.

As of January 2026, I am a Senior Lecturer for the Centre for Art History and Art Theory at the ANU School of Art & Design, convening and teaching the new course, ARTH2040 Art and the Environment: Creative Practice and Ecologies.

As an experienced HDR supervisor, I support and guide PhD and Honours graduates across a wide range of disciplines.

Since 2015, I have held many roles, including Head of Foundation Studies, Convener for the Foundation observational drawing course, ARTV1020. For four years I was Convener of Graduate Studies Coursework for Visual Arts, Design, and Art History, and Curatorship. I have convened and taught many undergraduate and postgraduate courses in art theory for The Centre for Art History and Art Theory, CAHAT. Courses include Australian Modernism, Points of View, Cyberculture and Art in the Digital Age, for which I was nominated for a VC Teaching Award in 2021

My interdisciplinary, practice-led research is nationally and internationally recognised, and I have been a recipient of several awards and prizes for my work, including the 2018 Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize for my piece 'Metamorphosis'. My practice spans lens-based imaging, print media, and drawing, as well as experimental digital platforms utilising frontier scientific visualisation software. A recurring theme in my work is the complex human relationships we have with nature and our natural environments, influenced by social, cultural, and technological factors. Through practice-led research, I explore ways to articulate my own experiences and concerns as an artist living in this time of uncertainty, where human activity has had a profound influence on the environment and climate.

My work as principal artist on major health infrastructure projects constitutes practice-led research into the role of art within healthcare environments. Through collaborative processes with health professionals, communities, and architects, I investigate how integrated art strategies can shape the cultural identity and affective experience of hospitals. This research generates new knowledge about the relationship between art, wellbeing, and public space, producing both tangible outcomes—artworks and integration frameworks—and broader insights into how creativity, culture, and community engagement can contribute to the design and experience of health infrastructure.

I am currently working as a principal artist on several major health infrastructure projects. These include leading art integration for the Eurobodalla Regional Hospital in Moruya (2025–26) with NSW Health, as well as the Endoscopy Levels 2 and 3 Integration project at the Canberra Hospital, commissioned by ACT Health (2025–26). From 2019 to 2022, I was commissioned for “What does a hospital feel like?”, a project initiated by NSW Health and the Campbelltown Arts Centre to develop an art strategy for the Campbelltown Hospital Rebuild, placing community, culture, and creativity at the heart of its Stage Two redevelopment.

Current HDR Supervision: PhD Art & Social Sciences, thesis by creative work. 

• Chair, PhD Candidate thesis by Research, Alexander Robinson, Looking forward to the past: renewed interest in accessing audiovisual archives
• Primary Supervisor, PhD Candidate thesis by creative work, Sophia Dacy-Cole Soil Breathes: meditative practice-led embodied interactions with soil through bioacoustics, microscopy, and field sampling  (Sculpture & Spatial Practice)
• Chair PhD Candidate thesis by creative work, Chenfie Xiao, Immersion, Agency and Immediacy in Mixed Reality Theatre: Thinking Through Making as a Dramaturg (Photomedia, Media Arts & Design)
• Associate, PhD Candidate, Thesis by Research, Lolita Manukian, The Motherland: A critical Investigation into the Discourse of Women, Myth and Power in Art and Visual Culture.

Completed HDR Supervision: PhD Art & Social Sciences, thesis by creative work.  

2024       Chair: Kate Baker, Visceral Matter: reduction, abstraction and the evocative void (Studio glass) 

2023       Primary Supervisor, Dr Lauren Kalman, Crafting Bodies And Performing Objects: Politics, Feminism And Subversion Through Performative Practice Through Adornment And Craft. (Object and Jewellery, Sculpture & Spatial Practice)

2023       Chair and Primary Supervisor, Dr Blanche Tilden, Finding value and meaning through a studio practice in jewellery and glass. (Object and Jewellery) 

2021       Chair, Dr Jane Theau, The Site of the Soul: skin, touch and textiles in contemporary art.  (Textiles, Sculpture and Performance)

2020       Associate: Dr Sandra Kelch, Changing Space: A Practice-Led Enquiry into Representations of The Urban.  (Printmaking) 

2019       Primary Supervisor: Dr Melanie Douglas, Surface tension: studio glass and the drawn line. (Studio glass in the expanded field)

2018       Primary Supervisor: Dr Brian Corr, Immersive Experience: Evoking the Elements of Contemplative Space in Japanese Architecture. . (Studio glass in the expanded field)

2018       Primary Supervisor (MPhil) Ms Caroline Huff, Fragmented Continuity: an investigation into autobiographical time. (New Media, Sculpture & Spacial Practice)

PhD (ANU) M.Phil (ANU) Grad.Dip(Vis) (USyd) B.A.(Vis) (Usyd)

• Practice-led Research
• Printmedia & Drawing
• Contemporary Practices in Art, Design & Craft
• Interdisciplinary Practice-Led Research
• Science and Technology