Tanya Duckworth is an artist and a neuroscientist from the NSW Central Coast, based in Sydney, Australia. Her current preferred medium is sculptural installation with accompanying works on paper, exploring neuroscientific concepts and documenting her professional scientific research.
Following a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Newcastle, a brief stint at San Antonio College, Texas' visual arts program and some international travel, Tanya embarked on a career in neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience, and in 2017 she completed a masters degree in this area through Sydney Medical School at the University of Sydney.
Tanya is currently a PhD Scholar in Medicine (Neuroscience) at the University of Adelaide examining the neural and cognitive mechanisms of creativity and the protective effects against neurodegenerative disease in people living with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
She is employed across several research projects at the University of Adelaide, in the school of biomedicine investigating neuroimmunological function; the Andy Thomas Centre for Space Resources looking at human factors in space research, and at the Elder Conservatorium of Music examining the impact of music on sensory neuroplasticity and neurodegeneration. Tanya is also a sessional academic in Cognitive Neuropsychology at the University of Sydney, and a Chief Investigator in endometriosis research at Macquarie University.
Tanya has exhibited both locally and internationally, including having her photographic work shown in a public exhibition projected onto the 42 story Linc LIC building in New York City and contributing to group shows in San Antonio, Texas. Her photographic portraiture work was exhibited at a gala event in The Louvre, Paris, and was published in The Body Collection exhibition catalogue from the event. In 2018 Tanya commenced a project titled Endo Illustrated, an exhibition of raw emotive portraiture documenting her battle with Endometriosis and raising funds for Endometriosis Australia, where she volunteers as an Endo Champion, however she was unable to complete the project ironically, due to being incapacitated with endometriosis. In December 2019 Tanya was part of a collective of artists led by Dutch artist Joram Van-der Starre, who thought it would be a fantastic idea to open an art gallery at Sydney's Fox Studios Entertainment Quarter called Art T Gallery, immediately preceding a global pandemic. The opening night was a hit, and after a few months of group shows, Tanya was excited to hold her first solo show, Endo Illustrated in April 2020.
Alas, the show, sadly, did not go on, the gallery was shut down and the exhibition cancelled.
Tanya has since been invited to hold this exhibition at VAS Gallery in Melbourne in 2024, and failing a second onslaught of epic pandemonium, Tanya is very much looking forward to showing this greatly anticipated body of work.
Her previous work has utilised abstract photographic, painting and installation techniques, to focus on cellular structures and genetics with underlying principles based in alchemical philosophy. Additionally, her painting encompasses a consistent evolving theme of rebirth through destruction as a meditative process of healing traumatic memories. More recently her work has returned to exploring portraits and figurative imagery, focusing on feminine empowerment and identity; and sculptural relief work exploring the scientific underpinnings of love as a habit-forming biological drive, including the neurobiological processes associated with falling in love, as well as the physiological withdrawal of heartbreak.
Tanya is currently working on a portrait for the 2024 Archibald Prize,
and desperately trying to finish her PhD so that she can practice what she preaches in her creativity research and work on
creative projects outside of academic research.