Annie Kevans

Annie Kevans (born Cannes, France) is an English artist who paints series of 'portraits' that explore sometimes controversial concepts and alternative histories. They are "portraits only in a loose sense... her works being a composite of existing images, research and imagination". Kevans has been described as "sensitive yet fearless, an artist who tackles controversial subjects head on". She was named number 19 in Harper's Bazaar magazine's "Forty Under 40" chart of hot new British talent, September 2007 and was named number 32 in New Woman magazine's "Brit Hit List" and was described as the "new Tracey Emin".

She lives in East London, with her husband, Will Kevans, and their daughter.

Kevans was born in 1972 in Cannes, France, to British parents. She was educated in France and England and subsequently took her part-time BA at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (1999–2004). While studying there, she supported herself by working at the V&A Museum of Childhood in London's East End. During this time, she also studied part-time for an MA in Museum & Gallery Management at City University in London.

In an interview for Running in Heels, Polly Allen says: "Growing up in a family of fearless and high-achieving women, [Kevans] describes herself as “a natural feminist. It wasn’t even a question for me.” She could take her pick from role models, such as her two great-aunts (Eleanor, one of the first female bosses in the UK who worked in the male-dominated gas industry, and Trubody, who was a spy and a member of MI6 with a Bronze Star Medal for bravery)."

The 30 paintings from the series Boys, from Kevans' BA Degree show at Central Saint Martins, were bought in their entirety by Charles Saatchi in 2004. These paintings showed 20th Century tyrants, dictators and war criminals such as Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot and Radovan Karadžić as young children. Kevans has repeatedly expressed her gratitude to Saatchi "because he kept the series together... people had been trying to buy bits and pieces of it – they all wanted Hitler". Kevans revealed that "having spent months looking for snapshots of infant autocrats at play, she eventually gave up. "I thought, 'Does it matter anyway if I make them up?' It caused quite a lot of debate". The series received positive reviews when it was shown at the Saatchi Gallery in London in 2013 and was described as "the highlight of a new exhibition called, simply, Paper" by Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail. The works were described as "provocative and haunting" and "fresh".

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