Bio

Alice Hargrave, a photo based artist in Chicago, incorporates sound, video, and photographic imagery within layered site specific installations. Recently, The Canary in the Lake, revisualizes climate related data from lakes on all seven continents. Working with global limnologists from GLEON, Global Lakes Ecological Observatory Network, Hargrave made lake “portraits” that reveal the invisible forces that are changing freshwater lakes due to climate shifts.  The Canary in the Lake presents more than 40 new photographic, video, and audio works that center on two new series relating to birds and lakes that continue Hargrave’s research on climate change-related loss of biodiversity and habitat. The exhibition title alludes to the “canary in the coal mine,” because freshwater lakes function as sentinels of climate change. 

Hargrave collaborated with The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, to create her project Last Calls, portraits of threatened birds using sound wave patterns of their vocalizations in the wild. Last Calls is widely exhibited, most recently in Lianzhou, China, winning a 2020 Illinois Arts Council Individual Artist Grant, as well as the finalist award in 2019. Putting the work to work — the bird vocalizations are printed on glass to prevent bird collision. The birds themselves call out to other birds DO NOT FLY HERE ! The bird call patterns are also translated into “Haute Couture” garments by Dovima Paris where profits directly benefit the birds. Paradise Wavering Hargrave’s monograph (Daylight 2016) and extensive solo exhibition traveled to multiple venues across the United States. 

Hargrave studied art and architectural history in Italy, and worked as a photographic artist in France and Spain. She is fluent in French, and received a University Fellowship to obtain her MFA from The University of Illinois, Chicago, where she explored the cusp between abstraction, and representation, and the relationship between painting, photography, and the sublime.

Hargrave’s work has been seen in solo exhibitions at University Galleries, The Hyde Park Art Center, The Chicago Cultural Center among others, and group exhibitions at The Museum of Contemporary Photography, The Smart Museum, Yale University Art Gallery, The Tweed Museum of Art MN,  Art Metz (France), The Griffin Museum of Photography MA,  516 Arts Gallery Albuquerque NM, Newspace Center for Photography Portland OR, Klein Gallery, and Carol Ehlers Gallery in Chicago who represented her. She is collected nationally, internationally, and is included in the permanent collections of The Museum of Contemporary Photography, The Art Institute of Chicago Artist Book Collection, The Ruttenberg Collection, Nuveen Corporation, Outer Circle Corporation, Rush Presbyterian Hospital among other public and private collections. Hargrave's work has received many awards, fellowships, and has been published and reviewed in several journals such as Huffington Post, BBC News, and ARTNET, and her research has led her to Artist Residencies in The Florida Keys, Montana, Northern Wisconsin, and a Ragdale Fellowship award, Lake Forest, IL. 

Hargrave has taught photography since 1994;  at The School of The Art Institute Chicago, and University of Illinois, Chicago, before her tenure track full time professorship at Columbia College Chicago. She has currently decided to teach part time, while pursuing commissions and conservation work.