About
I am a London-based artist and illustrator working across drawing, collage, photography, sculpture and textiles. My practice centres on the body, particularly the female body under medical and cultural scrutiny, with a focus on women’s reproductive health, past and present.
In 2010, I graduated with distinction from an MA in Fashion Cultures at the London College of Fashion.
I have exhibited at the Barbican Art Centre, The Bomb Factory Art Foundation and Birkbeck, University of London. My work has been featured in the Stylist, the London Review of Books and The King's Review. Selected prints are currently available at the Wellcome Collection bookshop
Over the past decade, I have worked extensively with writer and historian Dr Isabel Davis at the Natural History Museum. Together we published Conceiving Histories: Trying for Pregnancy, Past and Present with MIT Press in 2025, featuring 108 colour collage illustrations. The book was described by Nuala McGovern on Woman's Hour as “oh so beautifully illustrated.”
Our collaboration also led to the development of a fully illustrated deck of conversation cards designed to support open discussions around fertility and reproductive health. This project emerged from a public engagement programme hosted at the Natural History Museum (2023–25).
In my illustration practice I work primarily in collage and gouache, I use bold colour and pattern to explore themes of health, history, myth, storytelling and parenting. Inspired by illustrated books, from medieval illuminated manuscripts to modern fairy tales, I am keen to expand my illustration practice within editorial and publishing contexts.
I am currently seeking representation and welcome enquiries from publishers, editors and collaborators. Please get in touch here to request an extended portfolio:
CONTACT
annaburel@yahoo.co.uk
Exhibitions and Artist Residencies
Fertility Fortunes & Conceiving Histories, The Bookartbookshop, Window Display, 22 May - 5 June 2025
Fertility Fortunes, The Bomb Factory, Holborn, 23-26 January 2025
Fertility Fest, Bush Theatre, London , 8th-13th May 2018
Conceiving Histories, Peltz Gallery, London, 8th November-13th December 2017
London Creative Network, Artist development programme, [ Space ], London, June-November 2017
Ends, Hundred Years Gallery, London, 7th - 24th July 2016
Dark: Festival of the Unseen, Jill Rock, Hundred Years Gallery, London, March 2016
Mnemonic City Lisboa, Roundabout, Magma Collective, Lisbon, 24th 29th September 2015
The Landing, Roundabout, Magma Collective, Lisbon, 5th September 2015
Interfaces, Barbican, Fish island Labs, Magma Collective, London, 21st -23rd August 2015
Citta Mnemonica, Magma Collective, Art Residency Santa Reparata, Florence Italy, 28th June-10th July 2014
Monnalisa Day, Magma Collective and Gattarossa artists at the ex convent Leopoldine, Florence, Italy, 12th-15th June 2014
Magma Collective, Biagiotti Gallery, Florence, Italy, 2nd-5th June 2014
Whiteout, Jill Rock, Hundred Years Gallery, London, December-January 2014
Edge Of The Land, Hundred Years Gallery, Hoxton, London, June-July 2013
Mnemonic City: Moving streets, Magma Collective, Doomed Gallery, London, April 2013
Cuidad Memoria, Magma at Espacio Islandia, Madrid, Spain, November 2012
Plato’s Cave, Magma Collective, Doomed Gallery, London, September 2012
Direction and Production of ‘The Visitation Of The White Wolf’, Short film, London, 2010
Publications
Conceiving Histories, Trying for Pregnancy, Past and Present , February 2025, MIT Press, Isabel Davis
Stylist, 10 May 2018, Meet the artists exploring the invisible struggle of infertility, Moya Crockett
Times Higher Education, 16 November 2017, No.2,332 p.11 Research and art combine to explore 'history of trying to conceive', Matthew Reisz
The Kings Review 2017, Extremes, photography accompanying Helen Charman’s Parental elegy: language in extremis
Public Talks
Visualising Reproduction, De Montfort University, Leicester, 4th June 2018
Fertility Fest, Unpregnancy: Infertility before IVF, Bush Theatre, London , 13th May 2018
Being Human Festival 2017, Conceiving Histories, Behind the Exhibition,
Arts Week, Conceiving Histories, Birkbeck, School of Arts, London, 17th May 2017
Arts Week, Conceiving Histories: Urine, Academic-artist collaboration, Birkbeck, School of Arts, London, 16th May 2017
Fluid Physicalities, Conceiving Histories: The pregnant archive, Birkbeck, School of Arts, London, 10th March 2017
Being Human Festival 2016, Conceiving Histories, Senate House, London, 23rd November 2016
Conceiving Histories: An Introduction, Hundred Years Gallery, London, 21st July 2016
Art and Medicine: A Passionate Relationship, roundtable discussion with Dr Sonia Bhatt, Sisetta Zapone and Paula Garcia Stone, Hundred Years Gallery, 14th July 2016
Arts Week, Conceiving Histories: The Pad, Birkbeck, School of Arts, London, 16th May 2016
Projects
(Mis)Conceptions, Natural History Museum, London, 2023-2025
Modern Families by Fertility Fest, National Theatre, London, 26th February-2nd March 2018
Education
MA with Distinction, Fashion Cultures, 2009-2011, UAL, London
Diploma is Fashion Design , 2004-2007 Atelier Chardon-Savard (equivalent to a BA), Paris
Foundation Course in Fine Arts, 2003-04, Atelier Hourdé, Paris