Fiona Rae British, b. 1963

The first ever woman to be made a Professor of Painting at the RA, Hong Kong-born British artist Fiona Rae rose to prominence in the 1990s as one of the Young British Artists (alongside figures such as Tracy Emin, Rachel Whiteread, Jenny Saville, and Damien Hirst). Since then she has exhibited her work internationally, developing a portfolio the Royal Academy termed 'full of restless energy, humour and complexity, which has set out to challenge and expand the modern conventions of painting'. Rae works on large canvases, painting in collections that explore colour or its lack, moving deftly between defined shapes and riotous abstraction.