New Zealand-born, Sydney-based public artist Allan Giddy is a leading Australian artist working with sustainable energy systems and light in time-based sculpture. He was the founding director of the Environmental Research Initiative for Art (ERIA) at the University of New South Wales. His work has been presented at Tate Modern, ISEA and TISEA (the International Symposia on Electronic Art), as well as at numerous other venues internationally, and is held in public and private collections.
A past recipient of the prestigious NSW Travelling Art Scholarship, now the Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship, Giddy has developed an expansive practice through collaborations with industry, government and research partners. These have included AGL Solar, Living Power, Silex Solar, BP Solar, UNSW’s Centre of Excellence for Advanced Silicon Photovoltaics and Photonics, JAYCAR Electronics, Fujitsu, the City of Sydney, Caroma, Sydney Olympic Park Authority, Randwick City Council, and Pepperl+Fuchs GmbH.
Over the past two decades, Giddy has increasingly extended his practice into the public domain, particularly through site-specific active sculpture. He has completed major public commissions in Australia, including permanent works for the City of Sydney and Sydney Olympic Park Authority, as well as projects in China, Ireland, Germany, the United Kingdom, Türkiye and Aotearoa New Zealand.
Giddy has also conceived and curated a number of high-profile public exhibitions exploring the relationship between energy and art, including La Lune: Energy Producing Art (2014), which was runner-up in two categories of that year’s Australian Event Awards: Best New Event and Best Achievement in Sustainability. He also curated NOX Night Sculpture, which received a Highly Commended award in the Creative Communities category of the NSW Local Government Excellence Awards.
More recently, he curated Desert Equinox in 2022, marking ten years since his first Australian solar art exhibition in 2012. He was a finalist in the Northern Beaches Environmental Art and Design Prize in 2023, 2024 and 2025, most recently for works using a new extraction process to draw images directly from the atmosphere.