Ella Walker

Ella Walker is a London-based artist known for her captivating and narrative-rich large-format artworks. 

Biography of Ella Walker

Born in Manchester in 1993,  Ella Walker has cultivated a distinctive artistic practice that interlaces elements of medieval narrative, historical iconography, and contemporary imagination. Her artwork explores the theme of myth-making through costume and roleplay.

She earned her Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Fine Art, Painting, and Printmaking from the Glasgow School of Art in 2015. In 2018, she completed the Drawing Year Postgraduate Programme at the Royal Drawing School in London, UK.

Walker's practice encompasses various media, including tempera, gesso, pastel, and ink. She creates works that are visually stunning and narratively engaging. Her artworks have been exhibited at notable venues such as the Huxley-Parlour Gallery in London and EMBASSY in Edinburgh.

Ella Walker's Art Style

Ella Walker draws inspiration from medieval narratives and iconography. Her works often feature imagery and themes reminiscent of medieval and early modern paintings. She skillfully reconstructs scenes from historical artworks, combining them with found and mediated images to create new compositions.

She combines subject, object, time, and place to create vivid and captivating imagery. Walker explores performative spaces, encompassing both public and private realms, and her compositions draw inspiration from ceremonial processions and pilgrimages, while exuding a vibrant and indulgent carnival ambiance. Through her paintings, Walker reimagines female figures sourced from literature and art history, placing them in fresh contexts where they regain agency and authority, reclaiming their narratives.

Walker's works delve into themes of lust and longing. Her compositions draw from a wide range of sources, including Commedia dell'arte and Chaucer's "The Wife of Bath." Her masked figures are simultaneously elusive and alluring, embodying various allegorical roles. The viewer is invited to interpret these twisted and transfigured narratives.