Ella Nixon is a second year PhD student at Northumbria University. Her thesis, Beyond the National: Gender and the Regional Art Gallery focuses on the representation of women artists within regional art galleries from c.1970 to the present day. Ella’s thesis is a Northern Bridge AHRC-funded Collaborative Doctoral Award, in collaboration with the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Before beginning her thesis, Ella completed a History BA at the University of Cambridge and a History of Art MA at The Courtauld Institute of Art.
In 2020/21, Ella assisted the lead curator for the Challenging Convention and WOW: Women Only Works exhibitions at the Laing Art Gallery. Her experience in this role helped to inform the paper she presented at the Paul Mellon conference, ‘The Show is On: Laura Knight’s Career and Contexts’, at MK Gallery in January 2022.
Aside from women artists and regional art galleries, Ella is interested more widely in twentieth-century British art (in particular, the works and career of L.S. Lowry), the contemporary art market, and NFTs.
