Tony Plant was born in Cornwall. In 1990 he obtained a degree in Fine Art (painting) at Chelsea College of Art. His work encompasses a wide range of media, from moving image to photography, performance to painting, sculpture, time lapses, temporary interventions and drawings in the landscape.

An environmental artist, Plant has worked as a visiting lecturer at arts institutions and universities across the world. Exhibiting venues have included the ICA London, Riverside, Opera Australia, Ocean Film Festival and the Cornwall Art Biennale. Commissions/residencies include Australia, Bermuda, Scotland, Indonesia and Europe. One of his forthcoming projects is a crowd-funded drawing trip to Iceland with adventure photographer Tim Nunn.

His 2016 Royal Cornwall Museum exhibition was described thus: 'This work is rooted in the Cornish landscape and the experience of moving through it one step at a time.'

Marcel Theroux, writing in the Guardian, remarked: 'Tony Plant is an artist in the really pure sense of the word. To him, making these things is as natural as breathing.'