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 and using her body as research.
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 asserts 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 UCA. She is currently studying for a PhD in Art and Design at the University of Sunderland, with a fully funded studentship awarded by the Northern Bridge Consortium in 2025 with support from the NHS and the Helen McArdle Nursing and Care Research Institute.
Key moments include her 2025 artist talk at the Royal Academy of Arts, the publication of her artist Interview in Matter Journal (May 2025), performance art at Tate Modern (2019), and being a featured artist of the month with Haus a Rest and the Women in Art Prize. Her artwork for her MFA Graduate Show for RCA 25 was featured on the Royal College of Art Exhibition Marketing.
Alison was awarded full funding for her first solo show, The Manufactured Body Exhibition, in 2023, through the Levelling-Up government scheme for arts development in her local area. Due to its success, she was awarded funding for two further exhibitions alongside working to improve access to the arts in Crawley from Crawley Borough Council. In 2024, Alison was the project manager, marketing consultant, workshop facilitator and co-curator of the shows Finding Place 2024 and The Summer Exhibition 2024, where she exhibited work by over 200 artists, including her own.
"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 (UK) dress size from 8 to 26. Her work on body image is thought-provoking and changes perceptions of what a body can be and the future of our bodies.
Hear about my story and artworks here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DXTWpYroNlN/
and https://www.instagram.com/p/DGYPVhcoj2O/
*funding awarded by the UK government, Levelling Up/ Arts Council Priority Place.
