ABOUT
Elleanna Chapman is a communist and artist. She explores the political potential of art to catalyse class struggle, framing her call for revolution through the kitsch, cute, and pop-cultural – contrasting militancy with the fabulous and familiar. Working across media, with a particular fondness for installation, she attempts to bring the true nature of class society to the fore, delivered to the viewer via a litter of scrumptiously cute kittens or the glittering hands of a diva.
Underpinning her work, Chapman is a member of the Revolutionary Communist International. Consequently, she regularly engages with working-class histories, propaganda strategies, and current affairs. The artist asserts that her political organisation is in and of itself a social practice that both justifies and informs her work in the studio.
Drawing from her sincere love for so-called ‘low art’, Chapman looks to disrupt class and taste hierarchies, collaging found material together with her own creations, and stealing from society’s expansive image (and pop) culture as a basis for proletarian subversion. Ultimately, the artist hopes to create a new form of agitprop that will have you looking twice – when the revolutionary is put forward vis-à-vis the fabulous and the familiar, the demand to oust capitalism altogether does not appear so outlandish, after all.
EDUCATION
2021 - 2024
The Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford, BFA Fine Art (First Class Honours)
2020 - 2021
Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London, Foundation Diploma in Fine Art (Distinction)
EXHIBITIONS AND PROJECTS
2025
A Summer Party with Working Class Creatives Database and Working Arts Club, The Art House, London
DGTL GRL, Galleria Objets, London
Summer Camp, East Side Projects, Birmingham
Despite Collective, Ethereal Maison Gallery, London
Grafters Collective: on-screen, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford
Estuary Dreams: Screened, Focal Point Gallery, Essex
The Rendered Girl, Ethereal Maison Gallery, London
Home Is Where the Art Is, Hypha HQ, London
Whipped, Under the Spell, London
2024
Hypha Studios Open, The Dispensary, Wrexham
Introducing: Grafters Collective, The Peckham Pelican, London
BFA Degree Show, The Ruskin School of Art, Oxford
Water, Oil, Honey, The Crypt Gallery, London
2023
MAO Late x Ruskin, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford
Art Review Oxford: Decolonising Computing, The Ruskin School of Art, Oxford
Time to Act, hARTslane, London
Open Cells, Koppel Collective Gallery, London
PRINT!, Fronteer Gallery, Sheffield
MAO Late x Haute Mess Takeover, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford
I docked my own tail, The Ruskin School of Art, Oxford [duo]
Exhibition 002, Worcester College, Oxford
DOOZY, Strange Brew, Bristol
Spilt Milk, Fusion Arts, Oxford
S for Southend, Focal Point Gallery, Essex
2022
First Year Exhibition, The Ruskin School of Art, Oxford
New Hybrids, Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, Oxford
Exhibition 001, Worcester College, Oxford
Trouble, Fusion Arts, Oxford
T E L L I N G S P A C E S, The Dolphin Gallery, Oxford [solo]
A Cosmos of Colour, Richmond Gallery, Yorkshire
2021
Graduate Showcase, University of the Arts, London
AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES
2025
Recipient of the Eaton Fund
Artist in Residence at Good Eye Projects, London
Grafter in Residence at Hypha HQ, London
Artist in Residence at WOMB at The Lab, London (Supported by Bow Arts)
2024
Artist in Residence at Cambridge Artworks and Artspace, Cambridge
2023
Recipient of The Supporting Act Foundation's Creative Bursary
Artist in Residence at The Koppel Project, London
2022
Recipient of the Egerton Coghill Landscape Prize
Recipient of the Hart Prize for Preliminary Examinations
PRESS AND FEATURES
2025
A birthday bash with Working Arts Club and Working Class Creatives, Isabel MacCarthy for Plaster Magazine
Screening: Grafters Collective, Modern Art Oxford
Estuary Dreams, Focal Point Gallery
Home Is Where the Art Is by Grafters Collective at Hypha HQ, Tom Glover for FAD Magazine
Whipped at Under the Spell, émergent magazine
Issue#158 - Recommended Exhibitions, Hector Campbell for The Shock of the Now
Whipped with Elleanna Chapman, Gina Fischli, Jamie Fitzpatrick, and Unyimeabasi Udoh, Jéssica Varrichio for Under the Spell
An Interview with Elleanna Chapman, Women Cinemakers
2024
Grantees talk about their graduation, The Supporting Act Foundation
RSA Shows 2024: Elleanna Chapman, The Ruskin School of Art
2023
Say hello to the 2023 grantees, The Supporting Act Foundation
Exploring the Political Power of Kitschy Collages: an interview with Elleanna Chapman, Insights of an Eco Artist Magazine
Big Screen Associate Programme, Focal Point Gallery
2022
Art for Real, Boomer Gallery Magazine, 4th Edition
T E L L I N G S P A C E S, The Ruskin School of Art
PUBLICATIONS
2025
Kitties Want Communism. Self-Published.
2024
Introducing: Grafters Collective. Published by Grafters Collective.
The Cute Communist: Exploring the political potential of a cute aesthetic. Self-Published.
Autists & their Animals. Published by Grrrl Zine Fair.
2023
MT 23. Published by Cuntry Living.
Teach-Out on Education and Work in Art Review Oxford, Issue Six. Published by The University of Oxford.
2022
Trouble. Published by Industry Magazine.
CONTACT
studio@elleannachapman.com
@elleannac Instagram