Studio Bryony Ella

About

Bryony Ella’s studio designs and directs public realm installations and performances that respond to global climate and ecological collapse. Collaborating in the liminal space between science and spirituality, Ella has developed a particular focus on nurturing audience experiences that are cathartic, transformative and grounding, infusing data with wonder and wonder with data to illuminate embodied stories of belonging in / to / as nature.

Spanning film, lighting, music, dance, sculpture, spoken word and projection, her studio leads multidisciplinary, touring and site-specific projects that weave together realms of imagination, mythology and awe with tangible, lived experiences, community testimonials and academic research. Together, they invite audiences to explore and express myriad ways of understanding what it means to be human in a more-than-human world today.

In the studio, Ella works with an ecocentric and decolonial gaze to create paintings that consider the human body as a site of transformation; an experience that is fluid, dynamic, porous and intimately connected to all living systems. These works are guided by her ‘wild drawing’ practice, in which sensorial experiences of environment are prioritised over observational studies.

Both sites of practice weave throughout the other to inspire, inform and shape a body of work that celebrates, above all else, human-nature interconnectedness.

Read the Artist's statement

Biography & CV

Bryony Ella is a Yorkshire-born artist of British and Trinidadian heritage. Her studio is based in Cornwall, South West England. She has a Fine Art BA from Bath Spa University and an MA in Museology from the University of East Anglia. Since founding her studio in 2018, Ella’s work has been presented internationally in locations ranging from museums, galleries and festivals to cathedrals, rainforests and hospitals.

Alongside her painting practice, Ella works with nature-centred academics to create public realm artworks. She has developed touring and permanent installations across the UK and delivered participatory art programmes in the United States and Caribbean. Writing is intrinsic to this practice; Ella writes about her ‘embodied ecology’ practice on Substack, through which she shares creative approaches to deepening experiences of kinship with nature, contributes to non-fiction books and academic journals, and writes lyrical poetry for collaborations with musicians and sound designers.

This work build upon her background curating and project managing exhibition programmes for social history museums and science institutions, culminating in the role of Public Engagement Manager at the UK’s largest research lab, The Francis Crick Institute, in 2016.

Since then, her studio has produced projects for organisations such as the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, the British Ecological Society, University College London, Butterfly Conservation, the Grantham Institute – Climate and the Environment at Imperial College London, William Morris Gallery, Patagonia, COCO Dance Festival Trinidad, Right to Roam, Octopus Energy, the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, LDA Design, Oxford City Council, Islington Council and Fusion Arts Oxford, amongst others. In 2019, Ella’s commitment to science engagement with a social justice focus through public art was acknowledged by the Mayor of London, who highlighted her as part of the city’s centenary International Women’s Day celebrations.

Currently, Ella is Research Artist and public engagement lead for the international Wellcome Trust-funded project Melting Metropolis, which studies environmental and community histories of urban heat and health. Working within a team of historians and geographers at the University of Liverpool and Queens College City University of New York, Ella designs and delivers creative programmes inspired by their academic research. She is also mentor for Melting Metropolis’ community storytellers in London and New York, and co-supervisor of an embodied geographies of heat PhD research project in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

Image credits: Ewelina Ruminska, 2026

Exhibitions

Current The Sun and the Moon: Art inspired by the Celestial, Saatchi Gallery, London
2026 St Ives Society of Artists, Cornwall
2026 So strange and beautiful and new, Bank of England Museum, London
2025 What the Ancestors Whispered, DēpART, FUZE Caribbean Art Fair, Bahamas
2025 Cultural Reforesting, Orleans House Gallery, London
2025 See Here Now - Art in a time of urgency, The Place Collective, Grizedale Forest
2024 Right to Roam Kernow, Cornwall
2023 Cozy: Comfortable in my skin, Gallery OCA, London
2023 Trace, Chilli Art Projects, London
2022 Anima (solo exhibition), Campbell’s Art Gallery, London
2022 Lines of Dissent, Orleans House Gallery, London
2022 Entwined: Plants in Contemporary Painting, 20 21 Visual Arts Centre, North Lincolnshire
2022 Spaces In Between, W1 Curate & Everyday Racism, London
2022 Some Of Us Are Brave: The Feminine, Form and Function, CasildArt, Oxford
2022 Remember The Future, Orleans House Gallery, London
2021 Six predictions of Edinburgh’s future green spaces, British Ecological Society, Edinburgh
2018 Visions of Science, The Edge Gallery, Bath
2016 The Other Art Fair, Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol

Public Commissions

2025 Stand of the Sun: A solstice ritual for the melting metropolis, (performance), Melting Metropolis, University of Liverpool, supported by Wellcome
2025 My Body is a Sundial, (installation), Melting Metropolis, University of Liverpool, supported by Wellcome
2024 Imaginal Cells, (film - seed commission), Digital Black Dance Ecologies, supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council
2023 Alkemy of Sound: Planting Dirt, (performance with A K U Z U R U), COCO Dance Festival, supported by British Council Americas
2023 Turnpike Lane Shutter Gallery, (mural), supported by Haringey Council
2022 The Colour of Transformation, (performance & film), Butterfly Conservation with William Morris Gallery, supported by Arts Council England
2022 Freeling Street Pocket Park, (streetscape), Islington Play Association
2022 The Dataset’s Dream, (installation), UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, supported by NERC, UK Research and Innovation
2021 Broad Meadow, (streetscape), LDA Design, supported by Oxford City Council
2021 Take the Time, (mural), Grantham Institute at Imperial College London with Orleans House Gallery, supported by Octopus Energy
2021 Tributaries of Knowledge: Still We Rise, (installation), The World Reimagined
2020 Love Your Space, (mural), St Mungo’s Homeless Shelter
2020 Interconnected / Thank You, (mural), Fusion Arts Oxford, supported by Oxford City Council
2020 Biophilia, (mural), Great Ormond Street Hospital
2018 Follow the Lichen, (mural), Zero Emissions Network, supported by Islington Council
2010 Fern Protection, (mural), Rape Crisis England & Wales

Research & Residencies

2023 Visiting Researcher, Queens College, City University of New York (2023-24)
2023 British Council Circular Culture Programme, Trinidad
2023 Corbin Wildlife Sanctuary, Tobago
2022 Research Artist, University of Liverpool, Melting Metropolis (2022-27)
2022 Residency, UKCEH Decide Project
2022 DECIDE project, UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
2021 Cultural Reforesting, Orleans House Gallery, UK
2021 Artist Research Lab, Fusion Arts Oxford, UK

Awards & Prizes

2024 Digital Black Dance Ecologies, Imaginal Cells, AHRC
2022 National Lottery Project Grant, The Colour of Transformation, Arts Council England
2019 Hidden Credit: International Women’s Day, Mayor of London
2018 Visions of Science, Milner Centre for Evolution, University of Bath
2016 Grants for the Arts, Arts Council England
2011 Trevor Walden Travel Award, National Museums Kenya

Publications & Writing

2026 Routledge Handbook of Health and Environmental Humanities (Co-author, chapter: Participatory Methods and Collaboration)
2024 Wild Service: Why Nature Needs You (Chapter: Belonging), published by Bloomsbury
2020 Framing the Conversation, Technology, Design & the Arts: Opportunities & Challenges, published by Springer

Selected Press

2025

Bryony Ella’s Solar Cartography of Urban Heat, Made in Bed magazine, Sotheby’s

2024

Creator of the Month, The Great Outdoors magazine

2023

Taking Space in Nature: The Power of Change, Environment magazine

2023

The Dataset’s Dream, Resurgence & Ecologist magazine

2022

Green Visions: When artists and ecologists meet, The Niche magazine, British Ecological Society

2021

The Colour of Transformation, Where The Leaves Fall magazine

2021

Life Lines, bind collective journal

2020

Bloom where you are planted, Jackson’s Art journal

2020

The Rebel Zine, Newham Extinction Rebellion

Conference Presentations

2026 Stand of the Sun, Special Edition for Solutions House, Futerra supported by Wellcome, Somerset House, London
2025 Communicate: Against the odds, The British Natural History Consortium, Manchester
2025 Public Engagement in Environmental History, European Society of Environmental History, Sweden
2024 Imaginal Cells with Digital Black Dance Ecologies: Royal Society of Geographers AGM, London
2024 Embodying climate through art, space and time, World Congress of Environmental Humanities, Finland
2024 Drawing the Melting Metropolis, Future of London Conference: Climate Resilience and Equity, RSA, London

Public Collections

Shadow Dance series 1 Richmond Borough Art Collection
Tributaries of Knowledge The World Reimagined

Affiliations

2025 ReWild Yourself Champion, Voice for Nature
2024 Community of Practitioners (CoP), Orleans House Gallery
2023 Visiting Scholar, Queens College CUNY, New York
2023 The Place Collective
2022 Honorary Associate, Department of History, University of Liverpool
2022 Climate Reframe

Curatorial Roles

2016 Public Engagement Manager (Exhibitions), The Francis Crick Institute
2014 Exhibition Registrar, Wellcome Collection
2012 Interpretation Manager, Easy Tiger Creative
2011 Curator, The Women’s Library
2009 Exhibitions Officer, Brent Museum and Archives
2008 Curatorial Fellow, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts