I am a London-born, socially engaged interdisciplinary artist who works in moving images, photography, writing, and sound. My artistic practice is predominantly about things I have an inner conflict with, problems my work seeks to resolve or at least understand better. I make work that meditates on lost cultures and legacy through an intersectional lens.
Because of its reflective nature, my work is often research-led and long-term. My interest in anti-colonial and anti-ableist visual ethnographies and the ecologies of marginal communities that inhabit cities and public spaces shapes it. My process and practice are grounded in radical slow-looking and sensing, inviting viewers to slow down and reflect. I do this by delving into the sensory experiences of inner landscapes, durational rituals, and invisible micro-worlds.
I hold an MFA in Photography from Parsons School of Design, The New School, New York, which I received through a Fulbright All Disciplines Award.
INFO
OPEN CALL COMMISSIONS
2024/2025 awardee of the Four Corners Gallery Working Lives Commission, exploring the role of photography in documenting working lives in Britain from the 1930s to the present. I will be responding to this theme using film and photography to explore the decline and marginalisation of the small business industry, in South East London, for communities that rely on these industries for communal care, over five months, culminating in an exhibition in from Thu 10 April 2024 – Sat 3 May 2025 find out more here.
*This project is made possible through an investment from Four Corners as a 2024 commission, with support from the Foyle Foundation, Ampersand Foundation and Garfield Weston Foundation.
RESIDENCIES
Resident Artist Commission with Corridor, Videoclub and Brighton & Hove Museum. Wonder Lab Intervention at Hove Museum for art experiments over five days in February 2024. An intensive lab to explore and respond to the collection at Hove Museum and Screen Archive South East.
Artists’ Represent Recovery Residency - 2022/23 programme. Arts & Health Hub, RAW Material and London Arts and Health.
COLLECTIONS
United States Embassy, US-UK Fulbright Commission. Three works are on display in the permanent collection.
Two from Present Tense and one from Renaissance Man. Nov 2024 onwards. An online gallery exists here.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Wonder Lab Commission Exhibition in May-Nov 2024 Brighton & Hove Museum, UK, 2024
Photo books by Women Photographers, Women’s History Month, Exhibition.1-31 March 2024 with Alternative Arts, London.
Parsons School of Design, The New School, MFA Photography Graduate Exhibition 2023
Photoville Festival 2023, New York, USA
Photoville Festival 2022, New York, USA
Pingyao International Photography Festival,2022, Pingyao, China.
AWARDS & GRANTS
Freelands Foundation bursary for non-fiction writing awardee, 2025
Four Corners Gallery, Open Call: Working Lives, Nov 2024
Autograph Gallery, Open Call: Identity and Self-Representation Awardee, Jan 2024
Parsons School of Design, The New School, New York, Arnhold Forum Fellowship, Student Research Award 2023
Artists’ Represent Recovery Residency - 2022/23 programme. Arts & Health Hub, RAW Material and London Arts and Health
The Studio Museum, New York, Museum Education Practicum Alumni
The Royal Photographic Society/MPB Postgraduate Bursary 2022 Shortlisted with an MPB grant
Michael C. Toth Scholarship, 2022, Parsons School of Design, The New School, New York
Fulbright Scholarship Award Nominee 2021, MFA Photography, Parsons School of Design, The New School, New York. All Disciplines Award.
Mayor of London, Culture Seeds Fund, 2019
CURATION
Member of the British Art Network’s Emerging Curators Group 2024–Jointly supported by Tate and The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. Bella's curatorial interests are centred around women of colour transnational contemporary artists making lens-based work about anti-colonial, non-ableist and feminist discourses around radical care, women's health and its intersection with ecological feminism, subcultures, disability and environmental justice.
OPEN CALL COMMISSION FOR AUTOGRAPH, LONDON. Black Women in Photography: Reframing the Narrative. Wed 26th January, 2024. My photo book launch and conversation with a panel of Black women working across the photography industry, around the book's themes, as they discuss the importance of self-representation at every level of the image-making process. In an industry where the representation of women of colour is still frequently shaped by the white male gaze, this event takes a journey to a place where we can explore how we can reshape that narrative.
Curation of NOW Gallery & The Photography Foundation Black History Month Takeover 26th Oct 2023. Black to Front: From the Margins into the Centre. An exhibition which centres on black photographers and artists whose work subverts mainstream representations of the black experience. Celebrating black British artists outside of the mainstream, representing and presenting work that intersects disability, chronic illness, queerness, faith, and subcultures.