Painter and printmaker Stephen Chambers, RA, was born in London, England in 1960 and studied at Winchester (1978–79) and St Martin’s Schools of Art (1979–82), prior to graduating with a Masters from Chelsea School of Art in 1983. He is the recipient of numerous scholarships and awards including a Rome Scholarship, a Winchester School of Art Fellowship and a Mark Rothko Memorial Trust Travelling Award. He was Artist in Residence at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge in 1998 and was elected a Royal Academician in 2005. He has exhibited widely, holding more than 40 solo exhibitions including solo exhibitions at the Royal Academy, London (2012) and the Pera Museum, Istanbul (2014). His major portrait series entitled ‘The Court of Redonda’, first shown at the 2017 Venice Biennale, was subsequently exhibited at The Heong Gallery at Downing College, Cambridge, from where he received an Honorary Fellowship in 2016. His painting favours flatly presented figures against colourful backdrops and his inventive printmaking encompasses intaglio etchings, lithographs, monotypes, screenprints, potato prints and thumbprints. He also produces Artist books and drawings and has collaborated on three dance projects with the Royal Ballet: Sleeping with Audrey (1996), Room of Cooks (1997, 1999) and This House Will Burn (2001). He has commented that his work ‘speaks of states of mind, behaviours and sensibilities’. A two-volume monograph on his paintings and prints will be published by the Royal Academy in 2022. A catalogue raisonné of his paintings and prints is in progress.
In 2018 the Ben Uri Collection was honoured to be presented with a print by the artist, after the museum was shortlisted for the 2018 Hallet Independent Acquisition Award at the London Original Print Fair, held at the Royal Academy in London.
