Anne Desmet RA 25 (Edited)
Anne Desmet RA was born and brought up in Liverpool. She has BFA and MA degrees in Fine Art from Oxford University and a Postgraduate Diploma in Printmaking from Central School of Art, London.
She exhibits widely, has won over 30 national and international awards (including a Rome Scholarship in Printmaking 1989-90) and has works in numerous public and private collections worldwide. The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, have each purchased significant holdings of her prints and collages over the last 25 years. Over 30 solo shows to date include two major museum retrospectives (at the Ashmolean and the Whitworth respectively) and a third museum exhibition of works entitled ‘Anne Desmet: Olympic Metamorphoses’ (relating to the evolution of the London Olympic site): each of these three exhibitions toured UK museums for up to two years.
Brooklyn Bridge New Day by Anne Desmet RA
Commissioned works include pieces for the British Museum, National Gallery, British Library, V&A, Sotheby’s, Balliol and Worcester College (Oxford) and the Royal Mint. Desmet regularly teaches wood engraving and linocutting classes at print workshops throughout the UK as well as guest sessions at primary and secondary schools including Eton College and Winchester College.
An Honorary Fellow and former External Examiner in BA and MA Fine Art at Aberystwyth University, she was also (for four years) External Examiner in FdA and BA Fine Art at Kingston College of Art and has taught at other institutions including the RA; the British Library; British Museum; Middlesex University; Ruskin School of Art, Oxford; and Manhattanville College, New York State, USA.
Ammonite by Anne Desmet RA
Desmet is author of three printmaking books (published by Bloomsbury) and was editor of Printmaking Today magazine from 1998-2013. She is only the third wood engraver ever elected to membership of the Royal Academy of Arts (RA) in its 248-year history. The RA recently published a facsimile of one of her Italian sketchbooks, which was launched at a solo retrospective exhibition of her Italian-themed wood engravings, linocuts, lithographs and printed collages at the Royal Overseas League, London, last autumn. Anne Desmet lives and works in London where she is represented by Long & Ryle Gallery www.longandryle.com