Stephen Farthing was born in London. He studied at St Martin’s School of Art and the Royal College of Art, both in London, and at the British School in Rome. His first solo exhibition was held at the Royal College of Art in 1977. He has taught at numerous art schools becoming Head of the Department of Fine Art at West Surrey College of Art and Design. In 1990 he was appointed Ruskin Master at the Ruskin School of Fine Art and Professional Fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford, until 2000 when he moved to New York in order to take the position of Executive Director of The New York Academy of Art, Manhattan. His work was included in the 1989 São Paulo Bienal and he was elected a Royal Academician in 1998.

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