ABOUT
Education
The Royal College of Art, London MA Painting, 2023 - 2024
Edinburgh College of Art, The University of Edinburgh BA (Hons) Painting, 2017 - 2021
selected Exhibitions
Summer Photography Exhibition, Fountain Arts / Over The Bridge, Lincolnshire, 2026
Power in Pride, The Castle Cinema, London, 2025
Royal College of Art - Graduate Show 2024, The Royal College of Art, 2024
Queer Time, The Outsiders Gallery, London, 2024
Winter Exhibition, Bermondsey Arts Club, London, 2023
A Slash of Blue, Gerald Moore Gallery, London, 2023
Colour Exhibition, The Glasgow Gallery of Photography, Glasgow, 2023
SSA 130 Years | 30 x 30, The Royal Scottish Academy, 2022
Late at Tate Britain: Art Now, Shawanda Corbett, Tate Britain, 2022
Contemporary Painting Exhibition, The Brick Lane Gallery, London, 2022
Alt-D TENDERFOOT, Edinburgh Palette, Edinburgh, 2022
Nasty Woman Revive, Open House Hackney, London, 2022
Edinburgh College of Art - Graduate Show 2021, The University of Edinburgh, 2021
Selected Collections
Tate Library, Special Collections, London, England, UK
International Centre for the Image, Dublin, Ireland
Royal College of Art, Special Collections, London, England, UK
National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, Wales, UK
Artexte, Montréal, Quebec, Canada
Wallflower Zine Library, Brooklyn, New York, USA
Hato Press, London, England, UK
Ffotogallery, Cardiff, Wales, UK
Toronto Zine Library, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Raum für Illustration, Hamburg, Germany
Glasgow Zine Library, Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Leeds Central Library, Leeds, England, UK
K-Set, Zurich, Switzerland
Salford Zine Library, Manchester, England, UK
Picnic, St Leonards-on-Sea, England, UK
Denver Zine Library, Denver, Colorado, USA
Demo Art and Books, Sacramento, California, USA
Zontiga, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
The Photobook Cáfe, London, England, UK
Edinburgh College of Art Library, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
stocklists
Good Press, Glasgow
Parallax Photographic, London
NewBridge Books, Newcastle
Burley Fisher Books, London
PUBLICATIONS & FEATURES
The Eye of Photography - Featured Artist, 2026
Phases Magazine - Featured Artist, 2026
FotoSlovo Magazine - Featured Artist, 2026
DIVA Magazine - Writer and Photographer, 2021
Google Arts and Culture - Room With a View, 2020
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) - Online Featured Artist, 2020
SELECTED FILM & MOVING IMAGE
How to Build a Band (dir. Leo Schick), documentary short film. Primary participant and creative collaborator, 2025
Porcupine Tree - Rats Return (dir. Ricky Allen), official music video. Principal performer, 2022
Ela Ertan (b. 1999) is a London-based multidisciplinary artist, working across painting, photography and music.
Ertan is drawn to emotional rawness, and their work often takes on a diaristic quality. Their practice explores atmosphere, landscape, memory and states of the mind through colour, light and materiality. Working across disciplines allows them to move fluidly between mediums, with each one informing and enriching the other.
Born and raised in London, Ertan is of Turkish-Cypriot, Iranian and British heritage. They studied BA Painting at Edinburgh College of Art (2021) and MA Painting at the Royal College of Art (2024).