Gillian Wearing studied at Chelsea College of Art 1985–87 and Goldsmiths College 1987–90. She won the Turner Prize in 1997 and, in the same year, her work was included in Sensation at the Royal Academy of Arts: an exhibition of Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection.

Her work, initially inspired by fly on the wall documentaries such as Michael Apted’s Up series, is characterised by an engagement with the lives of others and her own family history; she uses photography, video and a range of devices to reveal personal details. In 2018 a bronze statue by Wearing, commemorating the life of the suffragist Millicent Fawcett, was erected in Parliament Square, London.

Photo: Eamonn McCabe