Royal Academician and British artist Fiona Rae became an iconic figure in the Britart movement following her inclusion in the seminal Freeze exhibition, curated by fellow Goldsmiths artist Damien Hirst in 1988. Fiona Rae’s abstract work was then bought by Charles Saatchi, to be featured in the 1997 Sensation exhibition, with her postmodern canvases alongside fellow Young British Artists Marc Quinn and Martin Maloney. Well known works by Fiona Rae include I’m Learning To Fly, Hidden Dragon, Shadowland and Bewitched.
Fiona Rae has earned such accolades as a result of her cerebral take on Abstract Expressionism, using a seemingly random assemblage of painterly applications to create new and unexpected juxtapositions on the canvas. Here in Bewitched, glitter and fluorescent symbols punctuate her dark background, in an appealingly puzzling amalgamation.
Following the success of Freeze in 1988, Fiona Rae’s paintings have appeared in numerous solo and group shows internationally including the Carré d’Art Musée d’art contemporain de Nîmes, France, 44th Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Royal Academy of Arts, London, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Germany, Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art, China and Tate Britain, London. Aside from numerous exhibition catalogues, Fiona Rae’s paintings and prints are discussed in many publications including Fiona Rae: Playing for Time and Tate Women Artists.
In addition to these impressive exhibitions, Fiona Rae has also been nominated for the Turner Prize and the Austrian Eliette Von Karajan Prize for Young Painters. A trustee of the Tate Gallery, she was commissioned by the Tate Modern to create a 10 metre triptych Shadowland for their restaurant.
Fiona Rae’s works are also held in many collections such as the Arts Council of Great Britain, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, British Council, London, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Essl Museum - Kunst der Gegenwart, Austria, Fonds National d'Art Contemporain (FNAC), Paris and the Royal Academy of Arts, London.
Fiona Rae was born in Hong Kong and also lived in Indonesia before moving to England in 1970. She attended Croydon College of Art to study a Foundation Course and Goldsmiths College where she completed a BA (Hons) Fine Art. In December 2011, Rae was appointed Professor of Painting at the Royal Academy, one of the first two female professors since the Academy was founded in 1768.
Buy signed limited edition prints by Fiona Rae at Opus Fine Art; the home of Contemporary art.