About Miriam Elia

Miriam Elia

Born August 16th 1982, Muswellhill, London

Dung Beetle books was created by artist Miriam Elia in 2014, as a publishing imprint for her highly regarded classic 'We go to the gallery.'

She paints, illustrates, writes and prints all the books in house (commercial copies are printed abroad). From 2014-2018 she collaborated with her writing partner and brother Ezra Elia, but from 'We do Lockdown' (2020) onwards she has been completely independent.

Miriam was born in Muswell Hill, north London, and attended Brighton art school and subsequently received a masters from the Royal College of Art in 2006.

After graduating she was spotted by BBC radio comedy for her strong talent in writing humorous one liners, and spent four years writing jokes and sketches on various shows. She was also given her own surreal radio show on BBC Radio 4 called 'A series of psychotic episodes,' which ran from 2007-2010 and received a SONY radio academy award nomination.

After a much needed change in direction, Miriam decided the world of entertainment was not for her, and retreated back to her studio, where she resumed painting and printing her own ideas, heavily inspired by the 1960s conceptual art statement 'The medium is the message.'

Since 2014, her Dung beetle books have sold over 250,000 copies, in the worlds biggest and most prestigious art galleries and book shops. Her work has been featured in The Observer, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Art newspaper, The Daily Mail, Spiked, Evening Standard, Hyperallergic, Channel 4, BBC Radio 4, FAD magazine, The New York times, Huffington Post and many more publications and journals.

Recently she has created a book for artist Marina Abramovic, for her solo show at the RA ending in December 2023.

Miriam has three children, and lives with her husband Russell Cliffe in Camden Town, north london.