Tristan Duke is a Los Angeles-based conceptual artist whose work explores perception, deep time, and human relationship to space and environment. Known for developing experimental techniques and building his own artist-technologies, he often engages directly with light as a medium –through immersive light and space installations.  Blending interdisciplinary research with expeditionary fieldwork, much of Duke’s work emerges through direct collaboration with scientists.

Begun in 2022, his ongoing project Glacial Optics uses camera lenses made from glacier ice to document climate change—employing this charged material as both a literal and conceptual lens. In this project Duke has sailed to the Arctic to document melting polar ice, conducted aerial surveys of the last remaining glaciers in the Sierra Nevada, and visited leading climate research laboratories where scientists study ancient ice to uncover clues about Earth’s climate past. 

From 2010-2023 Duke worked in collaboration with artists Lauren Bon and Rich Nielsen, forming the Optics Division of the Metabolic Studio, a collective project seeking to recontextualizing photography as a land-based medium and social practice.

Duke is the recipient of numerous awards and honors including the LACMA Art + Technology Lab Grant, the Nevada Museum of Art Peter E. Pool Research Fellowship, and the CLIO Award. His work has been exhibited widely including at SITE Santa Fe, LACMA, C/O Berlin, MASS MoCA, and many others. His book Glacial Optics was published by Radius Books in July of 2025.

Tristan Duke CV (updated 08-2025)