Ken Draper RA

Born: 19 February 1944, Sheffield, Yorkshire, UK
Elected ARA: 30 May 1990
Elected RA: 26 June 1991
Category of Membership: Sculptor

My work always creates a dialogue between sculpture, painting and drawing. The explosions in my new work on paper respond to the piercing beauty and ravaged landscape of my home on the Spanish island of Menorca.
Kenneth Draper RA

Ken Draper RA, Veiled Light/Pregonda Ken Draper initially trained as a painter, studying at Chesterfield College of Art from 1959 to 1962 and at Kingston School of Art, London, from 1962 to 1965. He then went on to spend three years at the Sculpture Schools of the Royal College of Art from 1965. Draper taught at Goldmiths’ College School of Art and Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts. In 1980 he was elected to the Faculty of the British School in Rome.

Draper’s first solo show was held at the Redfern Gallery in 1969. He subsequently went on to participate in a number of solo and key group exhibitions throughout the UK, Europe and the United States. His work was included in 'British Sculptors ’72' at the Royal Academy, the 'Silver Jubilee Contemporary British Sculpture Exhibition' in Battersea Park, the '1980 British Art Show' and the 1981 'British Sculptors of the Twentieth Century', at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, and in 'The Sculpture Show' at the Hayward Gallery in 1983.

Draper received a commission for the John Dalton Building at Manchester Polytechnic in 1972 and for the Oriental Gateway for Bradford University in 1977. A retrospective of his work was shown at the Warwick Arts Trust in 1981. Throughout the 1990s, Draper became increasingly well known as a painter.

Among Draper’s awards is the sculpture prize at 'Young Contemporaries' (1965), the Mark Rothko Memorial Award (1971) and a Major Arts Council Award (1977). He was elected a Royal Academician in 1991 and lives and works in Menorca.

Recent solo exhibitions
2012 Quest Gallery, Bath
2011 Lisa Sharpe Contemporary Art, London
2009 Lisa Sharpe Contemporary Art, London
2007 Castlegate House Gallery, Cockermouth
2005 Royal Academy of Arts, London
2004 Studio 3, London
2000 Hart Gallery, London
1998 New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham
Hart Gallery, London
1996 Hart Gallery, London
1995 Bridport Arts Centre, Bridport, Dorset
Hart Gallery, London
Peter Bartlow Gallery, Chicago, USA
Hart Gallery, Nottingham
1994 Hart Gallery, London
1993 Adelson Gallery, New York, USA
Royal Academy of Arts (Friends Room), London
Hart Gallery, Nottingham
1991 Grape Lane Gallery, York
Austin Desmond Gallery, London
Glenn Green Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
1990 Hampstead Theatre Gallery, London

Public collections
Arts Council of Great Britain
Arts Council of Wales
Ashmoleum Museum, Oxford
Contemporary Art Society, London
Cartwright Hall Museum and Art Gallery, Bradford
Courtauld Institute, London
Fitzwilliam Museum and Art Gallery, Cambridge
Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston, Lancashire
Leicestershire Education Authority
Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff
Usher Gallery, Lincoln

Contact details for further information
Email membershipoffice@royalacademy.org.uk

• Royal Academy of Arts