Bryony Dalefield


Bryony Dalefield is a New Zealand photographer and visual artist based in Wales. Her photographic works are held in the collection of the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

Early life

Bryony Dalefield was born in 1951 in Palmerston North, New Zealand, and grew up on a farm in the Manawatu region. In 1976, Dalefield travelled to the United Kingdom to work. During the 1990s Dalefield lived and worked in the village of Wye on the English-Welsh border.

Education

Dalefield studied photography at the Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland.

Career

After graduating from Elam, Dalefield worked as a photographer in New Zealand. Her photographs were featured in New Art: Some Recent New Zealand Sculpture and Post-Object Art, edited by Jim Allen and Wystan Curnow in 1976.
Dalefield began making quilt works around 1979 after seeing an exhibition in the UK where quilting was presented as an artistic medium. Her quilt works have included motifs such as eyes, hands, scissors and trees, along with Māori-inspired designs. Regarding works presented in her solo exhibition Provided with Eyes, Dalefield said that her quilting
has taken me to various countries and through stages in my life. I think they reflect that, to me they a story about a journey. What I like is the size. Quilting is done on a larger scale and designed to be wrapped around the body. All my work is larger than me.
Dalefield works mainly with tartans, chintz, calico and glazed cotton, fabrics that are all prone to fading. She describes herself as a quilter "greedy for pattern".
Notable exhibitions:
Written works: