Alina Szapocznikow (b. 1926 Kalisz, Poland; died 1973, Praz-Coutant, France) lived and worked in Poland and France. Growing up in occupied Poland during World War II, Szapocznikow spent most of her adolescent years between Nazi ghettos and concentration camps. After surviving the holocaust, she studied at Otokar Velímsky and the Artistic Industrial College of studio Josef Wagner, both in Prague, and at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris. Szapocznikow is best known for casts she made of both her body and her son’s body. These sculptures of fragmented body parts were rendered in bronze and stone, using sculpture as a medium for honouring memory and recording one’s own physical being. She represented Poland in the 1962 Venice Biennale, and in 2012, she was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Selected solo exhibitions include: TAMA, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel (2014); Galerie Loevenbruck, Paris (2013); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2013); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2012); Wexner Center for the Arts, Colombus, Ohio (2012); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California (2012); WIELS Centre d’Art Contemporain, Bruxelles, Belgium (2011); Kunstparterre, Munich (2012); Galerie Isabella Czarnowska, Berlin (2009); Broadway Gallery 1602, New York (2007); Czeskie Museum Sztuki, Prague, Czech Republic (2007); Narodowe, Warsaw, Poland (1999); Zacheta, Warsaw (1998); and  Museum Narodowe, Krakow, Poland (1998).
 

Joseph Beuys (1921-86) was born in Krefeld and died in Düsseldorf in Germany. He studied at the Düsseldorf Academy (1947-51). Beuys is universally celebrated as one of the most important and revolutionary German artists of 20th Century. He was a performance artist, sculptor, teacher, and political leader. His signature materials were felt and fat and he made drawings of a highly individual kind. Beuys’ work has been shown at venues such as Tate Modern, London, UK (2012-15), Gagosian Gallery, New York, US (2010), De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea, UK (2009), Museum of Modern Art, New York, US (2008), Tate Modern, London, UK (2005), Kunsthaus, Kaufbeuren, Germany (1998), Walker Hill Art Center, Seoul, South Korea (1997), Van Reekum Museum, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands (1996), Bündner Kunstmuseum, Chur, Switzerland (1996), Kunsthalle, Rostock, Germany (1996), Kultur- und Kongresszentrum La Poste, Visip, Switzerland (1995),Gerhard Marcks-Haus, Bremen, Germany (1994), Grafische Sammlung der Eidgenössischen T. H., Zürich, Switzerland (1992), Kunst-Station Sankt Peter, Cologne, Germany (1991), Akademie Galerie der Akademie der Künste der DDR, Berlin, Germany (1988), Kunstmuseum, Düsseldorf, Germany (1987), The Seibu Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan (1984), City Art Gallery, Leeds, UK (1983), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, US (1979), Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, UK (1974), and Documenta, Kassel, Germany (1972 and 1964).

Andy Warhol (b. 1928 Pittsburgh, d. 1987 NY) lived and worked in NY. He was one of the most prolific and influential artists of his time, becoming a leading artist in the Pop Movement of the 1960’s, and working across a wide range of media, controversially blurring or collapsing the boundaries  between high and low culture. Warhol has become a cultural icon, and his impact is felt today across the world. Selected solo exhibitions include: Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany (2013); Teylers Museum, Haarlem, The Netherlands (2013); Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek, Denmark (2013); Hayward Gallery, London (2008-09); Grand Palais, Paris, France (2009);  Lousiana Museum, Humlebaek, Denmark (2000); Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany (1999); Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1999); International Center for Photography, New York (1999); Kunsthalle, Basel, Switzerland (1993); Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1989); University of Pennsylvania–Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US (1989); Serpentine Gallery, London (1989); and Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, Jouy-en-Josas, France (1989). 

Stewart Helm (b. 1960 Hertfordshire, UK) lives and works in London and Buenos Aires. He studied at Maideston College of Art and at the Royal College of Art in London. Selected solo exhibitons include: TEW Galleries, Atlanta, GA (2014,1992-2008); Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta (2004); Honduras Gallery, London (2001); John Hansard Gallery, Southhampton (1998); The Approach, London (1997); Todd Gallery,London (1995); and Carlile Gallery, London (1986). Selected group exhibitons include: Natural Selection, The Fine Art Society (2013); Jibby Beane, London (2004); Under Different Circumstances, The Contemporary Atlanta Art Center (2004); Gallery Artist, Timothy Tew, Atlanta (2000); and Sacred, Timothy Tew, Atlanta (1998). 

David Austen (b.1960, Harlow, Essex) is a London based artist.  He studied at Maidstone College from 1978-81 and the Royal College of Art from 1982-85. Austen was awarded the Stanley Picker Fellowship at Kingston University in 2008-09. Recent solo exhibitions include The Gorgon’s Dream, The Burns Monument, Ingleby Gallery and the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Edinburgh and at Rob Tufnell, London (2012); Papillon, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London (2011); Smoke Town, Edinburgh billboard, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, End of Love, Modern Art Gallery Oxford, Oxford (2010); Man Smoking, Schiavo Mazzonis Gallery, Rome (2009); My love, I have been digging up my own bones in the garden again, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh (2009); The End of Love, Stanley Picker Gallery, Kingston University, Kingston-Upon-Thames (2009); Austen participated in Language Games. An Introduction to The Art of Our Times, Fundación Helga de Alvear, Cáceres, Spain (2012); Artists for Kettle’s Yard, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (2011); and Watercolour, Tate Britain, London (2011), amongst others. 

Egon Schiele (1890-1918) was an Austrian painter who lived in Vienna. A protégé of Gustav Klimt, Schiele was a major figurative painter of the early 20th century. His work is noted for its intensity and for the many self-portraits that the artist produced. Some view Schiele's work as being grotesque, erotic, pornographic, or disturbing, focusing on sex, death, and discovery. He focused on portraits of others as well as himself. In his later years, while he still worked often with nudes, they were done in a more realist fashion. Schiele participated in numerous group exhibitions during his short lifetime, including those of the Neukunstgruppe in Prague (1910) and Budapest (1912), the Sonderbund, Cologne (1912), and several Secessionist shows in Munich (1911). In 1913, the Galerie Hans Goltz, Munich, mounted Schiele's first solo show. A solo exhibition of his work took place in Paris (1914). More recently his work has been exhibited at the National Gallery, London, UK (2013-4).

Chris Ofili (b. 1968 Manchester, UK) lives and works in Trinidad. Since the mid-1990s, he has become well known for his vibrant, technically complex, and meticulously executed paintings and works on paper. Ofili received his B.F.A. from the Chelsea School of Art in 1991 and his M.F.A. from the Royal College of Art in 1993. Opening in October 2014 will be the first major museum solo exhibition of the artist's work in the United States, organized by the New Museum in New York. Work by Ofili has been the subject of solo exhibitions worldwide, including recent shows at The Arts Club of Chicago (2010); Tate Britain, London (2010 and 2005); kestnergesellschaft, Hanover (2006); and The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2005). He represented Britain in the 50th Venice Biennale (2003). He won the prestigious Turner Prize in 1998, the first time in a decade a painter had won. His works are represented in prominent collections internationally, including the British Museum, London; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Gallery, London; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Nicola Tyson (b. 1960, London) lives and works in New York. She attended Chelsea School of Art, and Central St. Martins School of Art, London. Tyson is known for her ‘psycho-figuration’ works - assertive depictions of the human body in odd arrangements of patched-together, distorted, or missing parts, rendered in a bright but reduced colour palette. Tyson's paintings and prints all begin in her line drawings and sketches, which she considers a distinct practice that allows for an exploration of the imagination and unconscious through focused free-association. Selected solo exhibitions include: Susanne Vielmetter, Los Angeles Projects, California (2014);  Sadie Coles HQ, London (2013); White Columns, New York (2013); Sadie Coles HQ, London (2012); Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York (2011); Sadie Coles HQ, London, UK (2009); Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York (2009); Marc Foxx, Los Angeles, California (2007); Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin, Republic of Ireland (2005); Sadie Coles HQ, London (2005); Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris (2003); Galeria Carnargo Vilaca, Sao Paulo, Brasil (2001); Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris, France (2000) and Sadie Coles HQ, London (1999).

Franz West (b. 1947 Austria, d. 2012) lived and worked in Austria and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. His earliest works were collages and small sculptures made from papier-mâché. These works, called ‘Adaptives’, were meant to be portable, and interacted with by the viewer. By the 1980s, West began to construct more permanent installations of usable seating and lounging areas. Through these works, he explored the relationship between art and everyday life and challenged traditional notions of the experience of the art object. Selected solo exhibitions include:  Mumok, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna (2013); Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, UK (2013); Collaboration with Franz West and Anselm Reyle, Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin (2012); Kammergarten/Unteres Belvedere, Vienna, Austria (2010);  Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany (2009); Fondation Beyeler, Basel, Switzerland (2009); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California 2009); Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland, US (2009); MAK, Vienna, Austria (2008); Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia (2005); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2003); Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz, Austria (2003); MassMoca, North Adams, Massachusetts (2003);  Palacio de Velázquez/Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (2001); ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany (2001); Rooseum, Malmö, Sweden (2001); and  Middelheim Open Air Museum, Antwerp (1998).

Georgina Starr (b. 1968, Leeds, UK) lives and works in London. She attended Slade School of Fine Art and the Rijksakademie Van Beeldende Kunst, and is counted among the second wave of Young British Artists. HerShe conceived  large-scale installations combine video and sculpture, creating complex emotional narratives  about seemingly meaningless events. Selected solo exhibitions include: Cooper Gallery, Dundee, UK (2013); Pinksummer Contemporary Art, Genova, Italy (2012); Moderna Museet and Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm (2012); The Pier Theatre, Bournemouth (2011); Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France and Delphi Silent Movie Theatre, Berlin, Germany (2010);  Pinksummer, Genova, Italy (2008); Sala del Minor Consiglio, Palazzo Ducale, Genova, Italy (2008); Harbourfront Centre Theatre, Toronto, Ontario (2008); Anthology Film Archives, New York (2007); Tracy Williams Ltd, New York (2007); Artprojx, A Foundation, Liverpool (2007); Art Film, Art 38 Basel, Basel, Switzerland (2007); nca | nichido contemporary art, Tokyo (2007); Artprojx and Film London, London (2007); Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds (2005); touring drive-in cinema, Riksutstillinger, Norway (2004); Pinksummer, Genova, Italy (2003); Fletcher Works, Site Gallery, Sheffield (2003); Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam (2003); Emily Tsingou Gallery, London (2002); Städtische Ausstellunghalle Münster, Münster (2001); and Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London (2000).

Nancy Spero (1926-2009) was born in Cleveland, Ohio and lived much of her life in New York. She received her B.F.A. Art Institute of Chicag (1949) and and honorary doctorates from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1991). She also studied at Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris (1949-50). As both artist and activist, Spero's career spanned fifty years. Executed with a raw intensity on paper and in ephemeral installations, her work often draws its imagery and subject matter from current and historical events such as the torture of women in Nicaragua, the extermination of Jews in the Holocaust, and the atrocities of the Vietnam War. Her awards include a Lifetime Achievement Award from the College Art Association (2005), the Honor Award from the Women’s Caucus for Art (2003), the Hiroshima Art Prize (jointly with Leon Golub, 1996), and the Skowhegan Medal (1995). Major exhibitions include Museo d’Arte Contemporani, Barcelona, Spain (2008), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte, Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea, Santiago de Compostela (2003), Hiroshima Art Prize, Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan (1996), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge (1994), the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (1994), the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1992), Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, Austria (1991),  the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1988) and Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California, US (1987). 

Paul McCarthy (b. 1945) was born is Salt Lake City, Utah and lives and works in Los Angeles. After attending the University of Utah, he received his B.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute, and his M.F.A. from the University of Southern California. McCarthy is widely considered to be one of the most influential and groundbreaking artists of today. McCarthy's works include performance, installation, film and ‘painting as action’ and through his artistic practice offers a critical analysis of the mass media and consumer-driven American society and its hypocrisy, double standards and repression. In the summer of 2013, McCarthy installed the largest and most ambitious to date film-and-sculpture environment, WS, at the Park Avenue Armory, New York. WS ran in conjunction with three solo shows of McCarthy's work at both Hauser & Wirth locations in New York City. McCarthy has presented solo exhibitions internationally at venues that include Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California (2014), Park Avenue Armory and Hauser & With (2013), Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany (2012), Kukje Gallery, Seoul, South Korea (2012), Salt Lake Art Center, Salt Lake City, Utah, US (2009), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, US (2008), Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent, Belgium (2007), Essl Museum Kunst der Gegenwart, Klosterneuburg, Austria (2007), Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden (2006), Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK (2005), Tate Modern, London, UK (2004), Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, UK (2001) and MOCA, Los Angeles, California, US (2000).

Maria Lassnig (1919-2014) was an Austrian artist. She attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna during World War II. She was best known for known for her painted self-portraits characterized by fluid strokes of bright paint vividly suggesting the colour and texture of her own ageing skin, although the personas that she adopted were often extremely ambiguous. She was the first female artist to win the Grand Austrian State Prize in 1988. In 2013 was awarded the Golden Lion lifetime achievement award at the Venice Biennale. Lassnig’s has been the focus of surveys at Museum of Modern Art PS1, New York (2014), Halle für aktuelle Kunst, Hamburg, Germany (2013), Gallery of Contemporary Art, Montreal, Quebec, Canada (2012), Neue Galerie, Graz, Austria (2012), Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York (2011), Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany (2009), Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna, Austria (2009), Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, US (2011), Serpentine Gallery, London, England (2008), Hauser & Wirth, Zürich, Switzerland (2007), Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Siegen, Germany (2006), Sammlung Essl, Klosterneuburg, Austria (2005), Städelmuseum, Frankfurt am Main, Germany (2004), Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland (2003) and Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France (1994). Lassnig's works are held in the collection of the MOMA in New York. Her estate is represented by Hauser & Wirth and Petzel Gallery.

Chantal Joffe (b. 1969 St Albans, VT) lives and works in London. She studied at Glasgow School of Art and at the Royal College of Art. SElected solo exhibitions include: The jewish Museum, New York (2015); Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy (2014); Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki, Finland (2013); Cheim & Read, New York, (2012); Victoria Miro Gallery, London (2011); Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York (2009); Victoria Miro Gallery, London (2008); University of the Arts, London (2007); Galeria Monica de Cardenas, Zuoz, Switzerland (2007); MIMA Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (2007); Galeria Monica de Cardenas, Zuoz, Switzerland  (2005); Royal Academy of Arts, London (2005); Galleri KB, Oslo (2005); and Bloomberg Space, London (2004). Selected group exhibitions include: Nightfall, New Tendencies in Figurative Painting, Galerie Rudlfinum, Prague (2013); Nothing in the World but Youth, Turner Contemporary, Margate (2011); British Subjects: Identity and Self-Fashioning 1967-2009, Neuberger Museum of Art, New York (2009); The Female Gaze: Women Look at Women, Cheim & Read, New York (2009). Joffe is represented by Victoria Miro Gallery, London. 

Enrico David (b. 1966) is an Italian artist born in Ancona. He lives and works in London and Berlin. David studied at Central St. Martins in London and works in painting, drawing, sculpture and installation. The human figure has been a constant in David’s work over the past decade. His recent works include large-scale portrait paintings of deeply psychological meaning, though drawing continues to be an important element of his practice. In 2009, he was nominated for the Turner Prize. David has had solo exhibitions at range of galleries and museum that include UCLA, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California, US (2013), Michael Werner Gallery, New York, US (2013), New Museum, New York, US (2013), Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice, Italy, VW (VeneKlasen/Werner), Berlin, Germany (2011), Museum Für Gegenwartskunst, Basel, Switzerland (2009), Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, US (2008), Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Cologne, Germany (2008), ICA, London, UK (2007), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2007), and Tate Britain, London, UK (2005). In 2013 he participated in Venice Biennale.

George Condo (b. 1957) was born in Concord, New Hampshire. He currently lives and works in New York City. Condo studied Art History and Music Theory at University of Massachusetts in Lowell and is recognized as being one of America’s most influential living artists. He works in mediums of painting, drawing, sculpture and printmaking. Condo’s highly original and distinctive body of work has consistently drawn upon art historical traditions and genres, the portrait particularly, in order to hold a mirror up to contemporary social mores. Condo has exhibited extensively in the United States, Europe and Asia. His works have been included in exhibitions at many prestigious museums including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, Salzburg, Ministere de la Culture, Paris, Museu d'Art Contemporani, Barcelona, the Kunsthalle Bielefeld in Germany, the Musee Maillol, Paris, The Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Monterrey, Mexico, Moderne et d’Art Contemporain, Nice, France, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany, Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht and the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin.

Fiona Banner (b. 1966) was born in Merseyside, North West England. She lives and works in London. Banner studied at Kingston University and completed her MA at Goldsmith College in 1993. Banner is part of the group known as YBA or Young British Artists and is a sculptor and conceptual artist. Her work centers on the problems and possibilities of language, both written and metaphorical. She juxtaposes the brutal and the sensual, performing a complete cycle of intimacy, attraction and alienation. In 1977, she started working under the title ‘The Vanity Press,’ and under this imprint has published books, objects and performances. She was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2002. In 2012, she worked with David Kohn Architects to make the Roi des Belges, a one-bedroom building modeled after the boat that Joseph Conrad captained up the Congo in 1980. Here, Banner staged the world premiere performance of Orson Wells' unrealised film script, 'Heart of Darkness.' The room is now installed atop the Queen Elizabeth Hall at London’s Southbank.

Recent solo exhibitions include: Wp Wp Wp, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, UK (2014); Mistah Kurtz - He Not Dead, PEER, London, UK (2014); The Vanity Press, Summerhall, Edinburgh (Catalogue) (2013); Unboxing, The Greatest Film Never Made, 1301PE, Los Angeles (2012); The Naked Ear, Frith Street Gallery, London (2010); and Harrier and Jaguar, Tate Britain Duveens Commission 2010, Tate Britain, London. Selected group exhibitons include: Mirror, Frith Street Gallery, London (2014); Building Site, Hardwick Hall, Chesterfield (2014); Postscript: Writing after Conceptual Art, Broad Art Museum, Michigan, USA (2014); This Page Intentionally Left Blank, Akbank Art Center, Istanbul (2014); Exploding Utopia, Laure Genillard, London, (2013); Word.Image.Space, Gesellschaft für Kunst und Gestaltung, Bonn, Germany (2013); Tracing the Century: Drawing as a Catalyst for Change, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool (2012); Graphology, The Drawing Room, London (2012); and I Am Still Alive: Politics and Everyday Life in Contemporary Drawing, MoMA, New York (2011). Her work is represented in many collections in the UK and abroad including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Art’s Council of England, Tate Gallery, London and Walker Art Gallery, Minneapolis.

Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) was born in Paris and lived and worked in New York. Arguably one of the most important female artists of the 20th century, Louise Bourgeois gained widespread recognition at seventy years old, and had her first retrospective in 1982 at MoMA, New York. Bourgeois’s works include paintings, drawings, and, at a later stage, sculptures. While altering materials and scales for her myriad of sculptures, interchanging between abstract and figurative representations, Bourgeois endlessly reformulated a single issue: her own feelings of jealousy, anger, and anxiety in an attempt to understand her raison d’être. Bourgeois has presented shows at Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany (2014), The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, UK (2013), ARTIST ROOMS, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, UK (2013), Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, Mexico (2013), Freud Museum, London, UK (2013), Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany (2012), Tate Modern, London, UK (2000), Musée National d’art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France (1994), Museum of Modern Art, New York, US (1994), Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France (1994), Musée du Dessin et de l’Estampe Originale, Gravelines, France (1994), Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, UK; Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, The Netherlands (1994), American Pavilion, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (1993), Dia Art Foundation, New York, US (1989),  Serpentine Gallery, London, UK (1985), Museum of Modern Art, New York, US (1982), toured Texas, Chicago and Ohio, US (1982), Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, US (1981) and Peridot Gallery, New York, US (1949-53).

Marlene Dumas (b. 1953) is a South African artist and painter who lives and works in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She attended Cape Town University (1972-75), where she studied for a BA in Visual Arts and completed her studies in Haarlem, in the Netherlands. She is widely regarded as one of the most influential female painters working today. In the past, Dumas produced paintings, collages, drawings, prints and installations. She now works mainly with oil on canvas and ink on paper. Stressing both the physical reality of the human body and its psychological value, Dumas tends to paint her subjects at the extreme fringes of life’s cycle, from birth to death, exploring the complex range of human emotions. Dumas has been the focus of exhibitions internationally at venues such as Tate Modern, London, UK, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2014), Zachęta, Warsaw, Poland (2012), Fondazione Stelline, Milan, Italy (2012), Frith Street Gallery, London, UK (2011), Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany (2010), Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto, Portugal (2010), MOCA, Los Angeles, California (2008), MOMA, New York, US (2008), Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan (2007), Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa (2007), Kunsthalle Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland (2005), Musée National d’Art Moderne and Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2001), ICA, Boston, Massachusetts, US (2001) and Tate Gallery, London, UK (1996). In 1995, she represented the Netherlands in the 46th Venice Biennale. Work by Dumas is in museum collections worldwide, including the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and Tate Gallery, London. 

Leon Golub (1922-2004) was an American painter. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, where he also studied, receiving his BA at the University of Chicago in 1942, and his BFA and MFA at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1949 and 1950, respectively. He is known for his graphic images depicting man's inhumanity to man. In Golub’s work political allegory meets profound empathy and fierce pictorial imagination. His work has been the focus of surveys at Nacional Centro De Arte, Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain (2011), The Drawing Center, New York, US (2010), Chicago Cultural Centre, Chicago, Illinois, US (2003), Anthony Reynolds Gallery (2005, 2000, 1998 and 1991), The New Museum, New York, US (1984), Eli Broad, Los Angeles, California (1989), San Francisco Art Institute (1976), and National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (1970-71). In 1996 he was awarded at the Hiroshima Prize and exhibited a retrospective at Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art. 

Carol Rama (b. 1918) was born in Turin where she currently lives and works. She is an Italian self-taught artist whose unconventional painting encompasses an erotic, and often sexually aggressive universe populated by characters who present themes of sexual identity with specific references to female sensuality. At the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003, Rama was presented with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. Rama’s work has been the focus of surveys at Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, UK (2014), MACBA, Barcelona, Spain (2014), Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Germany (2012), Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Germany (2012), Castello di San Giorgio, Legnano (2007), Castello di San Giorgio, Legnano, Italy (2007), Galleria Internazionale d'Arte Moderna di Ca' Pesaro, Venice, Italy (2006), Fondazione Achille Marazza, Borgomanero, Italy (2005), Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (2003),  Galerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris, France (2002), GAM, Museo d'Arte Moderna, Turin, Italy (1999) and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1998). Forthcoming exhibitions include Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria (2016) and Musée de la Ville de Paris, Paris (2015).