Joel Ely
Joel Ely was born in 1980 in Kent and lives and works in London. His oil paintings are characterised by their combination of figurative realism, borrowed imagery/collage and disruptive bold coloured abstraction. This ‘hybrid practice’, as he calls it, draws influences from painters such as John Everett Millais, Gwen John and Edwin Dickinson, as well as performance artists such as Adrian Piper, Rebecca Horn and Leigh Bowery.
Although best known for his portraits through exhibiting at the National Portrait Gallery’s annual BP Portrait Award (in which he received the Travel Award in 2005), Joel Ely’s practice has also incorporated installation, sculpture and performance. Animals and costume are sometimes featured as motifs within his work to both explore the inherent difficulties of communication and to question the notions of authenticity and tradition.