SELECTED CV
Lives and works in Manchester, UK
SOLO EXHIBITIONS AND PROJECTS
2026
Exercises in Knowing, HOME, Manchester, UK
2022
Solo presentation at the National Festival of Making, Blackburn, UK
2021
Nicola Ellis and Ritherdon & Co. Ltd.: No Gaps in the Line, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, UK
2018
Chemistry and Magic, Straight Down the Line, commission for the National Festival of Making, Blackburn, UK
2017
Front and Back, The Birley, Preston, UK
Sculpture: A Fabrication, AIR Gallery, Altrincham, UK
2015
It’ll Hold Until It Breaks, Platform A Gallery, Middlesbrough, UK
More Room for Error, ArcadeCardiff, Cardiff, Wales
More Room for Error, site-specific installation at &Model, Leeds, UK
More Room for Error, site-specific installation at Bloc Projects, Sheffield, UK
2014
You Won’t See That Bit Anyway, commission, 20-21 Visual Arts Centre, Scunthorpe, UK
2013
Sculpture Series – Quays Culture: Exhibition 1, The Studio, MediaCity, Salford Quays, UK
2009
Full Circle, PAD Gallery, Preston, UK
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024
Excavations, hybrid exhibition curated by Deborah Smith with Vortic Art, online and at House of Koko, London, UK
Inaugural group exhibition of indoor and outdoor works, ARC Peaks, Peak District, UK
Twelve Thousand, duo exhibition of large-scale sculpture with Richard Dean Hughes, Unit 12, Ardwick, Manchester, UK
2023
Centre of the Periphery, Pipeline Contemporary, Fitzrovia, London, UK
Mosaic Art Prize 2023, Hauser & Wirth, London, UK
Reside, exhibition resulting from an artist residency in the artist’s father’s invention cabin, St Helens, UK
Pallet Show, Sculpture Court at The Manchester Contemporary Art Fair, Manchester, UK
2022
Atos Art of Manufacturing, Atos Business Innovation and Technology Centres in Paris, Munich, Amsterdam, Milan, Vienna, Dallas, Liverpool and London
Peripheral Memories, Spazio35, Udine, Italy
Reflections Part 3: Sculpture Made by Women, Workplace, London, UK
2021
Peripheral Memories, Palazzo Costanzi, Trieste, Italy
Not Painting, Copperfield Gallery, London, UK
10 Year Anniversary Exhibition, Platform A Gallery, Middlesbrough, UK
Leggy MK II, Middlesbrough Art Weekender, Middlesbrough, UK
2019
No Particular Place to Go? 35 Years of Sculpture at Castlefield Gallery, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, UK
Each Toward the Other, Bury Sculpture Centre, Bury, UK
Major Conversations, Part 1, Platform A Gallery, Middlesbrough, UK
Major Conversations, Part 2, The Turnpike Gallery, Leigh, UK
CONTINUUM, Allenheads Contemporary Arts at the North Pennines Observatory, UK
2018
Oh, It Is Easy to Be Clever If One Does Not Know All These Questions, DOX, Prague, Czech Republic, and Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, UK
Incidental Futures, with Incidental Unit, Clore Studio at South London Gallery, London, UK
2017
Drawing for Sculpture, 20-21 Visual Arts Centre, Scunthorpe, UK
Transfuse: Three Weeks of Sculpture, The Great Medical Disaster, Manchester, UK
FIX, ICW, Blackpool, UK
2016
From A to C, This Being B, Caustic Coastal, Salford, UK
NY Open, NY Space, Manchester, UK
Means, Unit, Blackpool, UK
Da Vinci Engineered, Zebedee’s Yard, Hull, UK
2015
Cascading Relevant Information, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, UK
The Manchester Contemporary, with Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, UK
In Emergency Break Glass, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, UK
2014
The Shape of Things to Come, Stour Valley Arts, Kent, UK
2013
The Manchester Contemporary, with Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, UK
A Priori, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK
Head to Head: Nicola Ellis and Aura Satz, commission, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, UK
Means of Feedback, Cube Gallery, Manchester, UK
Some Recent Examples, Lever Street, Manchester, UK
Four, commissioned by Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK
2012
Meanwhile See This, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, UK
Cabedal, Plataforma Revolver, Lisbon, Portugal
Part of the Programme, FAFA Gallery, Helsinki, Finland
2011
Neo, Neo Gallery 22, Bolton, UK
Against the Grain, performance, Emergency Accommodation, BMC, Manchester, UK
We Are All in This Together, Bureau, Manchester, UK
2009
Experimental Film and Video Art, Vol. 2, The New Continental, Preston, UK
2004
Resonance, Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, UK
RESIDENCIES
2026
AA2A, Artlab, University of Lancashire
2024
An Invitation to Learn the Making of Sculpture in Bronze, Walnut Works, Suffolk, UK
2023
The Grange Projects, Norfolk, UK
Reside, residency in the artist’s father’s invention shed, supported by a RESIDE grant, St Helens, UK
2021–2023
Collaboration with manufacturer Ritherdon & Co. Ltd., UK, and robotics specialist Digiotouch, Estonia, as part of a Better Factory Knowledge Transfer Experiment (KTE)
2021
Artist in residence at the Pittini Group headquarters in Osoppo, facilitated by IoDeposito, Trieste, Italy
2019–2021
Return to Ritherdon, Ritherdon & Co. Ltd., Darwen, Lancashire, UK
2018
Art in Manufacturing residency at Ritherdon & Co. Ltd. for the National Festival of Making
BEYOND Open Door Residency, Allenheads Contemporary Arts at the North Pennines Observatory, UK
2017
FIX, ICW, Blackpool, UK
2016
3rd Floor Studios Residency, Manchester, UK
2014
Merz Barn Residency, Merz Barn, Cumbria, UK
Stour Valley Arts Residency, Kent, UK
2011
Secs and Death Cells, The Hive, Manchester, UK
GRANTS, AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS
2023
Mosaic Art Prize 2023 finalist, Hauser & Wirth, London, UK
Developing Your Creative Practice Grant, Arts Council England
2022
Henry Moore Institute Artist Research Fellowship
2020
Henry Moore Foundation Artist Award
2019
Arts Council England Grant for the Arts for Return to Ritherdon, a two-year artist placement at steel enclosure manufacturer Ritherdon & Co. Ltd.
2017
Manchester International Festival Creative50
Arts Council England Grant for the Arts for Sculpture: A Fabrication, a research and development project
2016
Arts Council England Grant for the Arts for Play/Pause: The Turbulent History of UK Steel, a research project
2014
Arts Council England Grant for the Arts for the More Room for Error practice development project
2010
St Helens Strategic Themed Grant
2007
CADGE Funding, University of Central Lancashire
PUBLICATIONS
2025
Radical Pairings
2021
No Gaps in the Line
2019
No Particular Place to Go? 35 Years of Sculpture at Castlefield Gallery
2017
From A to C, This Being B
2015
More Room for Error: Nicola Ellis
2013
Mark Devereux Projects: Nicola Dale | David Ogle | Nicola Ellis
2012
Corridor8 Contemporary Art and Writing Journal, Issue 3, Annual 2012
Quick Slow, Part 3
COLLECTIONS
Arts Council Collection
Government Art Collection
Manchester Art Gallery Collection
Blackburn museum and Art Gallery
Atos Collection
IoDeposito
Soho House
Private collections in the UK and abroad
EDUCATION
2010–2011
MA Fine Art, Manchester School of Art
2005–2009
BA (Hons) Fine Art, University of Central Lancashire