Nell Brookfield was born in London, England in 1994 and lives and works in London.
Nell received a BA in Anthropology from University College London, followed by an MA from the Royal Drawing School and the Pratt Institute. Her intellectual experience in anthropology has stimulated her interest and doubts about human behaviour. She always carries a sketchbook with her, constantly capturing inspiration from the people and things around her. Roland Barthes thought that the birth of literature symbolised "The Death of the Author", and so did Nell. For Nell, each viewer has the right to reinterpret her work when it comes to them. In order to facilitate the viewer's mental interaction with the work and to draw the viewer into constructing a panoramic imagination beyond the canvas, the work of Nell is mostly presented as a partial effect. The image of Silly Goose extends around the border of the canvas, giving the viewer a sense of unfinished business as if the work is just a fragment cut out of some larger picture by the artist.
Although most of the work is based on reality, these realistic inspirations of Nell are often revealed through the surreal space of the imagination. We can see all sorts of bizarre elements in Nell's work: twisted creatures, unconventional colours, and strange textures. (Dog & Chair, 2021) However, unlike most surrealist artists, Nell, who specialises in sketching, likes to depict the absurd and the uncanny with delicate brushstrokes. When we stand in front of the work of Nell, we can easily imagine the tactile feel of the textures. Surreal versus realistic, modern versus classical...... these dichotomous debates are made gentle and interesting through the artistic practice of Nell. So viewing the works of Nell is not an intense adventure, but a dream in which one lets down one's guard. In the dream, we realise that reality is not as real and ordered as we see it, as unchangeable.