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). 

Born 1960 Hertfordshire, Stewart Helm lives and works in London and Buenos Aires. Graduated from Maidstone College of Art and the Royal College of Art, London.

Helm has been a figurative artist all his adult life, but in the last seven years has begun to make work with no specific reference other than its need to be drawn. The more complex the drawing, the more involved Helm gets and the drawing itself guides and tells him something, whether it’s an abstract mental concentration, a passage into nature, or fractal forms that split, grow, contort and make their own journey on the page. He is interested in putting shapes on a page that give breath to what it is to be alive, human and subject to all the complexities of the universe. He thinks of the drawings as maps to reason, mindfulness and the beauty of life on Earth.

Selected solo exhibitions include Under different Circumstances, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center (2004); Feed Me, Nigel Coates Gallery, London (2000); Man and Nature, Galerie Timothy Tew, Atlanta (2000); and Numimous, Galerie Timothy Tew, Atlanta (1998). Selected group exhibitons include TEW Galleries Salon Show, Galerie Timothy Tew, Atlanta (2017); TEW Galleries; Portraits & Still Life with Haidee Becker & Isabelle Melchior, Galerie Timothy Tew, Atlanta (2016); Natural Selection, The Fine Art Society, London (2013); Jibby Bean, London (2004); Under Different Circumstances, The Contemporary Atlanta Art Center (2004); The British Are Coming!, Galerie Timothy Tew, Atlanta (2002); Gallery Artist, Galerie Timothy Tew, Atlanta (2000); Exquisite Corpse, Jibby Bean, London (1999); Sacred, Galerie Timothy Tew, Atlanta (1998); Projet Unité, Le Corbusier's Unite d'Habitation, Firminy (1993); The Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London (1991); and A walk on the Wild Side, Pomeroy Purdy Gallery, London (1990).

Awards include the Folio Society Award, London (1984).

Born 1960 Harlow, David Austen lives and works in London. Graduated from the Royal College of Art (1985).

Austen's work explores love and yearning, loss and grief, memory and dream, and the unreliability of these things. He makes his work with exactitude and attention; it's what the world deserves.

His work is held in public and private collections including Tate, British Council, Arts Council England and the UK Government Art Collection.

Selected solo exhibitions include The Last Great Trapeze Artist, TOTAH, New York (2021); Underworld, DCA, Dundee (2019); The Drowned, Matt's Gallery, London (2018); The stars above the ocean... the ocean beneath the stars, TOTAH, New York (2018); Black Heart, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea di Cogliandrino, Basilicata (2015); Papillon, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London (2011); End of Love, Modern Art Oxford (2010); End of Love, Stanley Picker Gallery, Kingston University, Kingston-upon-Thames (2009); and My love, I have been digging up my own bones in the garden again, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh (2009). Selected group exhibitions include Everything Else is Everything Else, an exhibition of Jack Kirkland’s collection curated by Abraham Cruzvillegas, MK Gallery, Milton Keynes (2021); The Shadow, TOTAH, New York (2020); The Aerodrome. An exhibition dedicated to the memory of Michael Stanley, curated by Jonathan Watkins, George Shaw and David Austen, IKON Gallery, Birmingham (2019); NEUE HORIZONTE 2030, GEIST, Berlin (2019); These Rotten Words, Chapter, Cardiff (2017); Cosmic Connections, TOTAH, New York (2016); The Nakeds, Drawing Room, London (2014); Slow Learner, Timothy Taylor Gallery, London (2014); Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing?, New Art Centre, Salisbury (2013); Language Games. An Introduction to The Art of Our Times, Fundación Helga de Alvear, Cáceres (2013); With An Apple I Will Astonish, Large Glass, London (2012); Artists for Kettle’s Yard, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (2011); and Watercolour, Tate Britain, London (2011).  
 

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.

Born 1960 London, Nicola Tyson lives and works in London. Graduated from Chelsea School of Art, London (1980); St. Martins School of Art, London (1981); and Central St. Martins School of Art, London (1989).

Primarily known as a painter, Tyson has also worked with photography, film, performance and the written word.

Her work is held in public and private collections including Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Whitney Museum of Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C; and Tate, London.

Select solo exhibitions include Sense of Self, Petzel Gallery, New York (2020); Works on Paper (online), Petzel Gallery, New York (2020); Beyond the Trace, Drawing Room, London (2017); A Tendency to Flock, Sadie Coles HQ, London (2017); Nicola Tyson, The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (2017); Works on Paper, Petzel Gallery, New York (2016); Living Dangerously, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland (2016); “Goodbye/Hello”, Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris (2015); Trouble in Happiness, Susanne Vielmetter, Los Angeles Projects, Culver City (2014); and Nicola Tyson: Bowie Nights, at Billy’s Club, London, 1978, Sadie Coles HQ, London (2013).

Select group exhibitions include Closer to Life: Drawings and Works on Paper in the Marieluise Hessel Collection, CCS Bard, Husdon (2021); 100 Drawings from Now, Drawing Center, New York (2020); Flora + Fauna, Sadie Coles HQ, London (2020); Inaugural Exhibition, Susanne Vielmetter Gallery, Los Angeles (2019); Close: Drawn Portraits, Drawing Room, London (2018); Cast of Characters, Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, New York (2018); Nudes, Sadie Coles HQ, London (2018); ISelf Collection: Bumped Bodies, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2018); Simon Denny, Sarah Morris, Joyce Pensato, Seth Price, Dirk Skreber, Hiroki Tsukuda, Nicola Tyson, Petzel at Nanzuka, Tokyo (2017); Artistic Differences, ICA, London (2016); and The Nakeds, Drawing Room, London and De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill On Sea (2014). 

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).

Born 1968 Leeds, Georgina Starr lives and works in London.

Starr is a British artist best known for her video, sound and performance artworks, exhibited widely in galleries and museums both in the UK and internationally.

Her works are held in public and private collections including Tate, London; Arts Council, London; Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis; FRAC Franche-Comté, Besançon; and Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Selected exhibitions, performances and films include Quarantaine, film commissioned by Film Video Umbrella, Glasgow International and touring (2021); Sixty Years, Tate Britain, London (2019-2020); Moment Memory Monument, Palazzo Reale, Milan (2017); Hello. Come here. I want you., Frac Franche-Comté,Besançon (2017); Androgynous Egg, performance commission for Frieze Projects (2017); Music and Art; Rock, Pop and Techno, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2001); New British Video Programme, Museum of Modern Art, New York (1998); Visit to a Small Planet, Kunsthalle Zurich (1995).

Nancy Spero (1926 -2009) lived and worked, for much of her life, in New York. Received B.F.A, Art Institute of Chicago (1949); honorary doctorates, the School of the Art, Institute of Chicago (1991); and 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 Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico (2017); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York (2017); Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois (2016); Punta della Dogana, Venice, Italy (2015); Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts (2013); Serpentine Gallery, London, England (2011); Musée National d'art Moderne Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France (2010); Museo d’Arte Contemporani, Barcelona, Spain (2008); Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2007); 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 (1988). She was awarded the Golden Lion lifetime achievement award at the Venice Biennale (2013). Lassnig’s work has been the focus of surveys at Hauser & Wirth, London (2017); 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 work is held in the collection of the MOMA, New York.

Born 1969 St. Albans, Vermont, Chantal Joffe lives and works in London. Graduated from Foundation Course, Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts (1988); B.A. (Hons) Fine Art, Glasgow School of Art (1991); and M.A. Fine Art, Royal College of Art, London (1994).

Joffe brings a combination of insight and integrity, as well as psychological and emotional force, to the genre of figurative art. Hers is a deceptively casual brushstroke. Whether in images a few inches square or ten feet high, fluidity combined with a pragmatic approach to representation seduces and disarms. Almost always depicting women or girls, sometimes in groups but recently in iconic portraits, Joffe’s paintings only waveringly adhere to their source – be it a photograph, magazine page or even a reflection in the mirror – instead reminding us that distortions of scale and form can often make a subject seem more real. 

Her works are held in public and private collections including Arts Council of England; EMMA - Espoo Museum of Modern, Helsinki; Fonds National d’Art Contemporain; The Guggenheim Museum, New York; National Portrait Gallery, London; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Saatchi Collection, London; Zabludowicz Collection, London; and Albright-Knox Art Gallery, New York.

Selected solo exhibitions include Chantal Joffe: Story, Victoria Miro, London (2020); Chantal Joffe: For Esme - With Love and Squalor, Arnolfini, Bristol (2020); Personal Feeling is the Main Thing - Chantal Joffe, The Lowry, Salford (2018); Using Walls, Floors, and Ceilings: Chantal Joffe, curated by Jens Hoffmann, Jewish Museum, New York (2015); and Chantal Joffe: Beside the Seaside, Jerwood Gallery, Hastings (2015). Selected group exhibitions include The Artist's Mother, IMMA, Dublin (2021); Portraying Pregnancy: From Holbein to Social Media, The Foundling Museum, London (2020 and 2018); Summer Exhibition 2020, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2020); Cut and Paste: 400 Years of Collage, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (2019); Whitechapel Gallery Editions, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2018); From Life, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2017); KVARTETT (QUARTET): Gauthier Hubert, Chantal Joffe, Jockum Nordström, Tumi Magnússon, National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavík (2016); Friendship Portraits: Chantal Joffe and Ishbel Myerscough, National Portrait Gallery, London (2015); Ritratto di donne: Alessandra Ariatti & Chantal Joffe, Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia (2014); Body Language, Saatchi Gallery, London (2013-2014); Nightfall: New Tendencies in Figurative Painting, MODEM, Debrecen (2012); Nothing in the World But Youth, Turner Contemporary, Margate (2011);  and DRAW, MIMA Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (2007). Selected projects include A Sunday Afternoon in Whitechapel, a major new public work for the Elizabeth line station at Whitechapel (2021).

Awards include the Royal Academy Wollaston Prize (2006).

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.

Born 1966 Merseyside, Fiona Banner lives and works in London. Graduated from Kingston University, and completed her MA at Goldsmith College (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.

Her works are held in public and private collections including 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.

Selected solo exhibitions include P E R I O D, Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar (2020); Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press, Libby Leshgold Gallery, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver (2019); Full Sea Stop Scape, Barbara Thumm Gallery Project Space, Berlin (2019); Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press, Independent Art Fair, Barbara Thumm Gallery, New York (2019); Buoys Boys, Mission Gallery, Swansea (2018); Runway AW17, De Pont Museum, Tilburg (2017); Au Cœur des Ténèbres, mfc-Michele Didier, Paris (2016); Fiona Banner, Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin (2016); and Study #13. Every Word Unmade, Fiona Banner, David Roberts Art Foundation, London (2016). Selected group exhibitons include Glasstress Boca Raton, Boca Raton Museum of Art (2021); Extrospection, Curated by David Thorp, Pi Artworks, London (2020); In The City, Frith Street Gallery, London (2020); Summer Breeze, Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin (2020); Overbooked, Hong Kong Art Book Fair, Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong (2020); By / Buy Me, curated by David Platzker, Susan Inglett Gallery, New York (2019); [email protected], Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin (2019); Word Play: language as medium, The Bonnier Gallery, Miami (2019); and Night At The Museum, Glynn Vivian, Swansea (2019).

 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). 

Awards include being shortlisted for the Turner Prize (2002).

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). Studied BA at the University of Chicago (1942); BFA and MFA at the Art Institute of Chicago (1949, 1950 respectively). Golub is known for his graphic images depicting man's inhumanity to man - political allegory meets profound empathy and fierce pictorial imagination. His work has been the focus of solo exhibitions such as Leon Golub: Portraits of Power, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK (2016); Bite Your Tongue, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico (2015-16); Serpentine Gallery, London, UK (2015);  Riot, Hauser & Wirth, New York NY (2015); Danse Macabrem Barbara Gross Galerie Munich, Germany (2014); Nacional Centro De Arte, Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain (2011);  Live + Die Like a Lion?, 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). He was awarded the Hiroshima Prize and exhibited a retrospective at Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art (1996). 

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).