Stephen Farthing (b. 1950) graduated with a BA in Fine Art from St Martin’s School of Art in London in 1973 and an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art in London in 1976.
Stephen has exhibited extensively since he held his first solo exhibition at the Royal College of Art Gallery in 1977. He represented Britain at the Sao Paulo Biennale in 1989, leading to many further solo shows around the world. He has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, including the John Moores Liverpool Exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery in which he was a Prize Winner on eight occasions.
His teaching career began as a Lecturer in Painting at Canterbury College of Art in 1977 after which he was a Tutor in Painting at the Royal College of Art from 1980-85. He was Head of Painting and then Head of the Department of Fine Art at West Surrey College of Art and Design in Farnham from 1985-89. From 1990-2000 he was the Ruskin Master of Drawing at the University of Oxford and a Professorial Fellow of St Edmund Hall in Oxford. He was the Executive Director of the New York Academy of Art from 2000-4 and the Rootstein Hopkins Research Professor of Drawing at the University of the Arts London from 2004-17.
Stephen was awarded an Abbey Major Scholarship at The British School in Rome in 1976 and appointed Artist in Residence at the Hayward Gallery in London in 1989. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1998 and has been Chairman of the Royal Academy Exhibitions Committee since 2013. He lives and works in Amman and London.