Alison Dollery is a Visual Artist, Writer, Researcher and Curator who employs the materiality of her own body as both the medium and canvas (Body as a Canvas) for her work, engaging in a diverse array of artistic forms, expanding practices of drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, printmaking, performance/body art, and writing.
These forms are all unified around the lived experience of her body, which she refers to as having a "Manufactured Body". Her interdisciplinary art practice and research have been deeply influenced by her long-term health conditions, stigmatisation of the body and her journey of drastic weight loss and body transformation. Using her body as a canvas and research, she is able to assert ownership over her embodied experiences.
Alison holds an MFA in Art and Humanities from the Royal College of Art and a 1st Class BA (Hons) in Fine Art from the UCA. She is currently studying for a PhD in Art and Design at Sunderland University, with an awarded fully funded studentship from the Northern Bridge Consortium and support from the Helen McArdle Nursing and Care Research Institute.
Her award-winning visual art practice, writings, and research are exhibited and published internationally.
Key moments include her 2025 artist talk at the Royal Academy of Arts, Matter Journal (May 2025), performance art at the Tate Modern and being featured artist with Haus a Rest, Women in Art Prize, among many others.
Alison received full funding for her first solo show in 2023, in collaboration with Arts Development and Levelling Up government funds, for her first solo show, the Manufactured Body and again in 2024 for her co-curated show Finding Place and The Summer Exhibition, where she exhibited over 200 artists.
"Her peers describe her as making groundbreaking work". (RA, 2025)
Alison is believed to be the first British artist to use their body to show a body that has been medically transformed and manipulated through surgical interventions in contemporary society (Bariatric Surgery). A body that has been every dress size from a size 8-26. Her work on body image is thought-provoking and changes perceptions of what a body can be and the future of our bodies.
*funding awarded by the UK government, Levelling Up/ Arts Council Priority Place.
