Elysia Byrd

Re-claiming the human as nature, working with the outside as a conduit to connect with magical, healing

and visual histories of plants and trees. Paintings expand into ceramics, botanical dyed fabrics, thread

and paper, collected materials.

Foraged plants and food waste are transformed into inks, dyes and

pigments. Working with the resonance of each material and the places they contain, listening and

connecting, works are created in symbiosis.

They say “tuck me here, stitch me there, fold me, stuff me,

paint me, I’d like to hold that object”. Like each plant or each place, each work carries a unique energy.

Fugitive in parts, changing, like us, over time. Openness to every outcome is absolutely intrinsic,

responding to breakages or accidents with care, all is welcomed.

Each work is an invitation to let the outside inside of you.

Elysia holds an MFA in painting from The Slade School of Fine Art, where she was the recipient of the

Desiree Prize for Painting (2026) and the Sarabande Emerging Artist Fund (2026). She was also selected for the Winsor and Newton residency.

A BA in Fine Art Painting from UCL, Wimbledon College of Art (2013).

Selected shows are Pods, Pom Poms and Other Souvenirs, Block 336 (2017), Search Party, Tatjana

Pieters (2023), FBA Futures, The Mall Galleries (2014). She has completed residencies Alto: Alto

Paraiso, Brazil (2014) and Pilotenkueche, Leipzig (2017)