Biography

Bryony Ella (née Benge-Abbott, b. 1984) is a Yorkshire-born interdisciplinary artist of British and Trinidadian heritage. Her studio is based in Redruth, Cornwall.

Alongside her painting practice, Bryony is the Research Artist on an environmental history project investigating sensory, lived experiences of health and heat in New York, London and Paris, and co-author in the recently published book by the Right to Roam campaign called ‘Wild Service: Why Nature Needs Us’.

Bryony has a BA (Hons) in Fine Art Painting from Bath Spa University and an MA in Museology from the University of East Anglia, receiving distinctions for both theses critiquing the male and the colonial gaze in Western art.

Over the past decade, Bryony has developed a public realm practice focusing on public engagement with ecological and climate research. Often working in collaboration with academics, artists and activists, she has created numerous participatory public art projects integrating mediums such as film, sculpture, creative writing, music and dance. These artworks have been shown internationally in venues ranging from museums, galleries and festivals to locations as diverse as St Paul’s Cathedral and Great Ormond Street Hospital, to a Tobagonian rainforest wildlife sanctuary and a live-stream onboard a research submarine in the Mariana Trench.

In 2019, Bryony’s commitment to science engagement through public art was acknowledged by the Mayor of London, who highlighted her street art practice as part of the city’s centenary International Women’s Day celebrations. Since then, public art project partners / supporters have included British Council Americas, the British Ecological Society, the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Butterfly Conservation, William Morris Gallery, the Grantham Institute - Climate and the Environment at Imperial College London, LDA Design and Octopus Energy, among others.

Bryony’s public engagement experience builds on a museology background creating exhibitions at institutions such as The Women’s Library and the Wellcome Collection. This culminated in establishing the first exhibition programme at the UK’s largest lab, The Francis Crick Institute, where she collaborated with world-leading biomedical researchers and brought in artists, designers, patient groups and community partners to co-create multidisciplinary and multi-voiced exhibitions looking at human health and disease.