BIO

Ellie Niblock (b. 1993) is an Irish artist based between London and Belfast. She holds an MA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins and a BA (Hons) in Textile Art, Design and Fashion from Ulster University. Her work has been exhibited at Saatchi Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Carrousel du Louvre, the Mark Rothko Centre and F.E. McWilliam Gallery. Her sculpture Ban All Fuchsia Pink is held in the permanent collection of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. In 2021, she was a featured artist on Sky Arts’ Landmark, creating a large-scale public installation in Belfast.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My work explores identity, memory, belonging, and the body through sculpture, installation and digital technologies. It comes from an interest in how the self can be altered and constructed, and in the uncertainty that sits around that process. Childhood memories, archival images, places, people and objects often end up in the work, sometimes clearly recognisable and sometimes completely distorted. I think of memory as kaleidoscopic. It repeats, overlaps, exaggerates and reorganises itself over time.

I am interested in the similarities between the brain and the hard drive: both hold information through fragments, retrieval and loss, and neither gives us a completely reliable version of the past. Through sculpture, collage and digital processes, I pull memories apart, layer and distort them, and rebuild them into new forms where different places, people and moments begin to collapse into one another. The results can feel like dreams, digital daydreams or over-embellished memories of somewhere that may never have existed quite as I remember it.

I move back and forth between physical and digital ways of making. I work with silicone, plaster, foam, resin, textiles and pigments, alongside 3D scanning and digital collage. Bodies, images and environments are copied, stretched, distorted, layered and remade, giving digital experiences a physical presence and physical things an alternative life in digital space. This process of reconstruction mirrors the way I think about identity. I carry the same approach into the materials themselves, altering colour, texture and surface until they take on a character of their own. My background in textiles shapes my love of materials. I am drawn to sugary colours, glossy finishes and forms that feel playful, seductive and inviting, while carrying an underlying sense of tension. I am interested in that tension between attraction and discomfort.

Ellie Niblock (b. 1993)

EDUCATION

2018- 2020 University Of The Arts London Central Saint Martins, MA Fine Art, London

2012-2015 University Of Ulster- Textile Art, Design And Fashion, Belfast

COLLECTIONS

2020 Arts Council of Northern Ireland permanent collection

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2022 Visualeyes, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield

2022 Augment, 87 Gallery, Hull

2016-2017 Absorption, Ards Art Centre, Newtownards

2016 Entice, Repel? The Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast

RESIDENCIES

2021-2022 Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, UK (Supported by UAL and Yorkshire Sculpture Park)

2020 Connect Me Residency, online (Supported by The Arab British Centre And British Council)

2017 The Mark Rothko Centre, Daugavpils, Latvia

2017 DIVA Residency, Electric Picnic, Stradbally, Ireland

2016 Art Ichol, Maihar, India (Supported By Arts Council Of Northern Ireland And British Council)

COMMISSIONS

2021 Sky Arts, ‘Landmark’, Belfast

2021 ‘Aquavate’ Installation On The Maritime Mile, Titanic Quarter, Supported By Belfast City Council, Belfast

2021 ‘Plug In Panorama’ Digital Artwork In Collaboration With Kaleidoscope Festival, Supported By Bank Of Ireland Together Arts Fund, online

2021 Digital Commission With WheelWorks, Belfast

2021 The Artists Emergency Programme Commission, The Arts Council Of Northern Ireland

2018 Sculpture For Scoil An Droichid School, Belfast

2018-2022 Commission For Electric Picnic Festival, Stradbally, Ireland

2017 Live Art Performance For Culture Night Belfast In Collaboration With Audiences NI, Belfast

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2026 COLLECTIVISM, Bomb Factory Art Foundation, London

2025 Carpool, curated by The Icing Room, London

2025 Fandom, curated by Bad Art, London

2025 Panel Discussion, curated by Richard Shields, Bomb Factory Art Foundation, London

2025 New Abstractions, Refuses x Galleria Objets, London

2025 Deptford x Fringe, London

2025 Flow, Fleet Studios x Yipps, curated by Christie Swallow, London

2025 LAS Invites, London Art Services, London

2025 Re-Routing, Holborn Window Gallery, Bomb Factory Art Foundation, London

2025 Pickled, APT Gallery, London

2024 Buffer, The Art House, Tbilisi, Georgia

2024 ART COLLECTIVE: From The One To The Many, Saatchi Gallery, London

2024 Nectar, Hypha Studios X Thin Red Lion, London

2024 Hot In Here, Bomb Factory Art Foundation, London

2024 Shelf Life, Hartslane Gallery, London

2024 Rotor, The Louvre, Paris, France

2023 Superposition, Cube In Context Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia

2023 Melt, Hypha Studios X Creative Land Trust, Euston Tower, London

2023 On Purple, London Art Collective, London

2023 Scary Biscuits, Crypt Gallery, London

2023 Thin Red Lion X Hypha Studios, Farringdon, London

2023 The Sky Is Low And The Ground Is High, Greatorex Street Gallery, London

2022 Abstract, Bomb Factory Art Foundation, Covent Garden

2021 Assets, Science Gallery, Dublin

2021 Finally, Ugly Duck, London

2021 The Possibilities Of Touch, Safehouse, London

2020-2021 Open2020, Baltic Centre For Contemporary Art, Gateshead

2020 Digital Art Month, Miami, US

2020 ‘Do Knot With ‘Er’’ Lux Moving Image Gallery, London

2020 ‘Belongings’, APT Gallery, London

2019 ‘Vanishing Point: The Curation And Preservation Of Virtual Reality’, Tate, V&A Museum And British Film Institute, London

2019 ‘Challenging Space’, Chelsea College Of Arts, London

2019 Tate Exchange VR Interactive Installation, Tate Modern, London

2018 ‘Form Sculpture’ Exhibition, Bangor Castle Walled Garden, Belfast

2017 Destination C.Q Window Exhibition, PS Squared Gallery, Belfast

2016 Enniskillen Visual Arts Open, Fermanagh

2016 ‘Form, Function And Food’, R-Space Gallery, Lisburn

2016 ‘The Art Of Craft’, The Market Place Theatre & Arts Centre, Armagh

2014 ‘Down But Not Out’, Titanic Building, Belfast

AWARDS

2023 Support for the Individual Artist Award, The Arts Council of Northern Ireland

2020 The IERP Fund, Arts Council Of Northern Ireland

2018 Support for the Individual Artist Award, The Arts Council of Northern Ireland

2018 The Eaton Fund

2017 Support for the Individual Artist Award, The Arts Council Of Northern Ireland

2017 Travel Award, The Arts Council Of Northern Ireland

TALKS

2021 AER Conversations, Yorkshire Sculpture Park x University of the Arts London, online

2020 Panellist For Al Balad Residency, Ministry Of Culture, Saudi Arabia, online

2020 How Digital Art Encourages Connectivity Across Borders, Agora Digital Art, online

2020 ConnectME Digital Residency Artist Talk, Arab British Centre & The British Council, online

2017 Going Against The Grain, Blick Studios, Belfast, Ireland

Workshops

2026 Connections: People, Place and Purpose mixed-media sculpture workshop series, School Festival x Camden Biennale, Wac Arts and Parliament Hill School, London

2023 Sculpting Daydreams, Hypha Studios, London

2023 Clay sculpture responding to artist residency, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield

2023 Clay sculpture, remote

2022 Mixed-media sculpture and digital technologies workshop series, 87 Gallery, Hull

PRESS

2025

https://thefineartsociety.uk/a-masterful-exploration-of-time-and-reflection-the-pickled-showcase

2024

https://mater.digital/stories/ellie-niblock-on/

2023

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/07/Arts/Design/Hypha-Studios-Free-Artist-Space.html

https://www.theguardian.com/Culture/2023/Jan/07/Going-Out-Staying-In-Complete-Guide-To-This-Weeks-Entertainment