Finding art world recognition later in life, Kent-based painter Rose Wylie first began showing her large-scale, folkloric compositions in the 1980s. Often inspired by simple motifs including animals, insects, flowers and everyday imagery from rural Kent, Wylie also draws on a rich knowledge of art history, mass media and ancient iconography. Her work possesses an intense physicality, which often results in rough texture and raw brushstrokes—she scratches out and covers up various elements, reworking the space until her depiction suits her visual memory. Text appears in many of her pieces, tying together narratives and illuminating characters. With a unique, playful style, Wylie interweaves pattern, motif, vintage advertising, bizarre animals and historical account, transcending the aesthetics of memory.

Some of Rose Wylie’s exhibitions include Tate Britain, London, Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin, Germany, The Drawing Room, London, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC, UNION Gallery, London, Thomas Erben Gallery, New York, Turner Contemporary, Kent, UK, Transition Gallery, London. In 2011 she won the Paul Hamlyn Prize for Visual arts, and in 2014 she received the John Moores Painting Prize. In 2010 Wylie became the only non-American artist in the Women to Watch exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C., and in 2015 she became a member of the Royal Academy of Arts.