Cecily Brown (British, b.1969) is a leading contemporary painter, whose work embraces both representational and abstract elements in sensual depictions of figures and nudes. Brown was born in London and attended the Slade School of Fine Art; she later studied printmaking and draftsmanship in addition to painting. She moved to New York in the early 1990s, quickly receiving critical acclaim for her painted works, which feature abstracted images of human forms, often engaging in sexual activity, in rich colors and animated brushstrokes. Her works draw on the legacies of
Lucian Freud,
Willem de Kooning, and many Abstract Expressionist artists, but Brown injects her works with a fresh sense of humor and titles them after the names of famous musicals and films. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions at several prominent institutions, including the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in New York, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., and the Saatchi Gallery in London.