Bonita Ely
Past Artist In Residence
1993

Bonita Ely is an Australian printmaker and environmental artist who was born in Midura in 1946. She has been a leader in environmental art since the 1970s and is a founding member of the Environmental Research Institute for Art (ERIA) at COFA. Her pedagogic research explores ways to facilitate the delivery of art education in culturally diverse settings, and her online course, Cross Cultural Sculpture, specializes in this innovative approach. 
Exhibited in prestigious international venues such as Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Harbourfront, Toronto, and the National Gallery of Australia (NGA), Canberra, Ely’s work has been selected for surveys of contemporary Australian art such as Fieldwork, the opening of the Ian Potter Centre for Australian Art, Melbourne, and the National Sculpture Prize, NGA (2005). She has a diverse, interdisciplinary practice, and her methodology based on the premise that a particular idea and context requires the deployment of particular mediums and disciplines.  Throughout her work, she purposefully creates a non-representational, sculptural catalyst for contemplation.  It is a poetic interaction to evoke the impact of the viewer’s cathartic imaginations upon their epic and intimate habitats.