Nell Breyer is an artist working at the intersection of media, movement and the public domain. She enlists approaches from neuroscience, art and engineering to understand contemporary practices in media and performance shaping our public spaces. Her research explores how we perceive and understand human movement and its impact on our surroundings.

Her work has been shown internationally in art institutes (Museo dell'arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Sadlers Wells, Cankarjev Dom, The Bangladesh National Museum, The National Academy of Arts & Sciences, Contemporary Art Museum St Louis, MASS MoCA, The Philadelphia Art Alliance, Carroll and Sons) and urban settings (Boston City Hall, Brigham and Women's Hospital, The World Financial Center, The Big Screen Project etc). Her work has received support from New York City's Artists Corps Grants and the Garment District Alliance, The Boston Foundation, The Trust For Mutual Understanding, Impulstanz Vienna, Kaleidescope/ UNESCO, Sadler's Wells, LEF New England, Massachusetts Cultural Council, New England Foundation for the Art's (NDP), Baryshnikov Art Center, Dance Theater Workshop and the Council for the Arts at MIT.

Nell was a Research Affiliate at MIT's Center for Advanced Visual Studies and the Program in Art, Culture and Technology from 2002-2010; a Digital Fellow at Dance Theater Workshop (2004) and Baryshnikov Art Center (2009). She was an artist fellow at the Bogliasco Foundation (2026, 2022), Cycladic Arts (2025), Keshet Art Center (2025) and Trestle Gallery (2019/20).

Nell studied painting at Yale University (BA, 1994), and Cognitive Neuroscience at Oxford University (MSc, 1997). She completed a Masters in Media, Arts and Sciences from MIT in 2002 and a doctorate at Harvard's Graduate School of Design in 2011. She has taught at Massachusetts College of Art and Design and at RISD's Digital + Media department and has served as an invited guest lecturer and critic for graduate level students at Columbia University, Visual Arts Department, Tufts and Boston Conservatory at Berklee College, Dance Division. Her articles and publications can be found in the Brooklyn Rail (2023-25), Journal for Artistic Research (2011), Movement Research Journal (2011), and ISMAR 2010 Art, Media and Humanities (2010).