Ella Ranfft, born in 1996 in Leeds, England, immigrated to New Zealand when she was two years old. Before studying a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Whitecliffe College of Arts & Design (2015 – 2018), she attended a large number of painting and life drawing classes to help initiate the development of her painting practice, as an artist who investigates the body and its politics. 

 

Today, her work is concerned with the self-portrait as a tool to study the female form. Ranfft utilises well-known historical poses of the nude within her practice, and titles many of her works in relation to this history. Ella’s paintings are large and luscious in colour, and reverberate a Rubenesque emotion, though the paint application and texture are currently sparse.

 

In addition to her paintings, Ranfft has recently embarked on a project called cozy_queen_crochet. Her interest in searching for the coziest patterns affirms that we are seeing a re-elevation of many traditionally domestic crafts usually considered outside the canon high art. Ranfft  shares her designs and patterns at https://cozyqueencrochet.wordpress.com