About
STATEMENT
Ella Shepard is a painter, drawing on personal and collective memories to create works that deeply connect with time, flux and the instability of a moment. Moments shift, memories change, lights flicker and suddenly we are experiencing something completely altered and fragmented. Like reality, the paintings are fractal, they exist on multiple planes. Allowing for figures to emerge from veiled layers of oil paint, the characters seemingly exist in a state of flux between themselves and their dream-like environments. The process of layering marks and building recollections reaches a point of abstraction, where the scenes are confused and distorted, as Shepard believes that life is experienced like that of a collage. She describes the process of painting as trying to remember; it is a search for clarity and the concurrent negation of that clarity; Like recalling a fragmented dream which is simultaneously collapsing in on itself. In an internal world they are teetering on the edge of dissolve, with a psychological resonance towards poetic space and quiet intimacy. They borderline illusion and reality, in a collaged dialogue between construction and deconstruction and abstraction and figuration. They are fragile, fleeting and temporary.
BIOGRAPHY
Ella Shepard (b. 1993 Harrogate, United Kingdom) studied Fine Art at Oxford Brookes University (2016) and has recently received an MA in Painting from Arts University Bournemouth (2023). Shepard currently works in her studio exhibiting regularly across the country and Europe. In 2017 Shepard worked alongside BiC pens and created pieces in collaboration with Parkinson's UK at Store Street Gallery. In 2018 she won the Young Bath Art Prize and her painting was chosen for the cover of Young Romances’ album, 'Don’t Look'. Shepard has been commissioned by and exhibited with Modern Art Oxford, The Arts Council and residencies have taken her to Bauhaus University and Cove Park to name a few. Shepard's work has been featured in Art and Framing Today, Wot is art?, House and Garden and Paint Britain. Shepard's work has been purchased for private collections and her paintings can be viewed as a permanent part of Oxford’s Public Art Collection. Awards include Jorge Aguilar-Agon National Artist Award, Bath Art Prize, Lena Fritsch’s Selection Award (The Ashmolean Museum), The Eaton Fund and Jackson’s Painting Prize Longlist (2023). Her painting was recently selected by Tracey Emin for the Margate Art Prize shortlist.
Education
Master of Arts, Painting Degree, Arts University Bournemouth Distinction, (2023) Bachelor of Arts Hons, Fine Art Degree, Oxford Brookes University, First Class, (2016)
Interviews
Flow on Film: Creative Flow, Ella Shepard and Mirren Kessling Re:Imagined 2017 Artist Interview: Ella Shepard
Residencies
Eggardon Residency, Dorset, March 2022 Artist in residence, Leighton Park, Reading September 2019 - July 2021 Cove Park [Residency] Scotland, October 2019 Illustory [Residency], AYYO and The Chipping Norton Theatre September - November 2017
2024
One’s to Watch 2024 , Sunny Bank Mills Gallery, Leeds, 2 March - 21 April 2024
2023
Autumn Collection, Thompson’s Gallery, London, 2023
Out of Body, Paragon Gallery, Cheltenham, 26th August - 9th September 2023
Through Hell or High Water, [Shorlisted selection made by Tracey Emin] Margate Art Prize, Ramsay and Williams Gallery, Margate, 5th - 30th July 2023
Art on a Postcard Auction x Jack Trodd (Hepatitis C Trust, Brushes with Greatness) May - June 2023
Tart Gallery London Exhibition, 21st - 29th April 2023
Jackson’s Painting Prize, Longlist March 2023
Dangerous Women, Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum, Bournemouth, March 2023
2022
[Solo Exhibition] The Infinite Now, Pen Gallery, Poole, Dorset November - December 2022 MA Painting Graduate Exhibition, Lighthouse Poole, 4th Sep - 28th October 2022 Group Exhibition, Liliya Gallery, Putney London, 31st May 2022 - 28th June 2022 Paint @ XOXO Bournemouth, Group Exhibition May 2022 Eggardon Residency, Dorset, March 2022
2021
The B.A.D makers, BEAF, Boscombe Arts Depot December 3rd 2021 Re-imagining Illustrations, The Road to the Museum [Commission], The Russell-Cotes Museum, November 2021 ArtHelix: Life Interrupted - Painting during the Pandemic, on Artsy, July 2 – September 3 Text me when you get home, The Impulse Movement , Artcan artist associate ‘Walk through the landscape of our memory’ Whiteknight’s Arts Trail, Peckover Gallery, Leighton Park, 26th - 27th June 2021 50 Shades Of Red, The Artist Lounge, King House Gallery, 25the May 2021 - Present click here Open Art Exhibition, Oxfordshire Artweeks, Jam Factory Art Centre, 17th May - 26th July 2021 Painting of the Day: Alto Lounge, Paint Britain [Feature] 6th April 2021 LENA FRITSCH'S SELECTION [Award] for Zuleika Gallery, Lena Fritsch, curator of Modern & Contemporary Art, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, As part of Art from the heart Exhibition Alone, Together, [Virtual Exhibition] Shannon Skye Robinson, Details Unprecedented, [Exhibition], OVADA, Oxford, 2nd April - 30th May 2021 Art from the heart,[Online Exhibition] Zuleika Gallery's Charity Exhibition raising money in aid of Maggie's Oxford, 20 March - 5 April 2021 Associate Artist [Digital Platform Commission], Modern Art Oxford, February 2021 The Mask and Me [Virtual Exhibition], Curated by Maria E Silvestar March 2021 My Friend, the Sea at Modern Art Oxford Artists for Long-Term Care [Commission], Filmmaker & Ted Talk speaker Kitra Cahana, A story-telling initiative to advocate for residents and workers care during Covid-19 January 2021, Click Here Responsive Space, Modern Art Oxford - supported by the Art Fund, Oxford, 2nd October 2020 - 3rd January 2021
2020
Supporting The Arts, Bobby Forsythe Exhibition, December 2020 Self Portraits and Stories in the Time of COVID-19 , Adrienne DeLoe with Green Wave Gallery, Denver, October 2nd 2020 Pause, Oakview Gallery, Reading, 20th November 2020 - 16th December 2020 Danh Vo: Chicxulub; Flow review – artists of the floating world, [Exhibition Review] The Guardian, Review of Flow at Modern Art Oxford 2020 Together: Stories [Commission] Old Fire Station Gallery & The Oxford Hub, Supported by Arts Council England and Lankelly Chase Foundation, September 2020 Flow, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, 24th August - 11th September 2020 Creative Flow [Interview} With Russel Antcliff (Curator) & Mirren Kessling (Artist), Modern Art Oxford, 12th August 2020 Breathworks: [Online Exhibition] Modern Art Oxford & Torch Oxford, 30th July - 30th September Artist Associate, Jelly 1st July - January 1st 2021 2020 Confinement Chronicles, Frikifish Barcelona 1st April 2020 - 15th August 2020 Coantivirus, NY20 International Art Village, From March 30 2020 to the day when Covid-19 fully under control Connectivity, Creative Collective, Collection Usher Lincoln Gallery, July 2020 Up and coming artists 2020 [Feature} House an Garden Magazine, The Art Edit, June -November 2020 Unmasked, The Impulse Movement, Artist Collective Exhibition, June-July 2020 The Impulse Movement [Collective] Co-Founder May 2020 Creative Sanity: Where Art Meets Presence [Book] Featuring 27 artists, 10 countries worldwide, soon-to-be-released Autumn 2020 Whiteknights Arts Trail, Peckover Gallery, June 2020 Artist in residence, [Residency] Leighton Park, Reading September 2019 - July 2021
2019
Independent Commission Work [Commission] January-February 2019 Representational Art [Residency] LARA, Bristol March 2019 Wot is Art {Feature} National Art Magazine, April 2019 Oxfordshire Artweeks, Oxford, May 2019 Cove Park [Residency] Scotland, October 2019
2018
Sightsize [Workshop/Residency] Salisbury, September, 2018 Breathe [Solo], 44AD Artspace Gallery, Bath, July 2018 Mental Health, Cornerstone Arts Centre, Oxfordshire, May-July 2018 Oxfordshire Artweeks, Oxford, May 2018 Ignite, [Commission] Young Romance's New Album: Don’t Look, February 2018 Sleep, Owen Mumford Gallery, Chipping Norton, November - January 2018
2017
Illustory [Residency], AYYO September - November 2017 Eighthwonder: Identity Winner [Prize], 44AD Artspace Gallery, Bath, September 2017 Eighthwonder: Identity, 44AD Artspace Gallery, Bath, August 2017 Re:Imagined: 2017 [Commission] Store Street Gallery, raising awareness for Parkinson UK, London, June 2017 Movement, Cornerstone Arts Gallery, Didcot, May 2017 Art at Brookes, Glass Tank Gallery, Oxford, March 2017
2016
BiC Pens ‘Intensity’ [Commission] Digital and Printed Artwork for advertising, October 2016 Public Oxford Art Collection, Oxford, September 2016 Exposed, Blair Zaye at the Ben Oakley Gallery, Greenwich, August 2016 Feature on Young Artists, Art and Framing Today, August Edition 2016 Off The Wall, Free Range, Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, July 2016 Off The Wall, BA Degree Show, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, May 2016 Finalist Artist, Jorge Aguilar-Agon National Artist Award Competition, April 2016
2015
Indoor / Outdoor: Painting, The Summaery, The Bauhaus University, Weimar, Germany June 2015 Das Verbergen der Unruhe - Hiding in the Unrest, Inspired by Virginia Woolf's 'The Waves' June 2015 The Summaery, The Bauhaus University, Weimar, Germany June 2015
2014
Independent Study, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, December 2014 One, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, May 2014.