Ian Davenport was born in Sidcup, Kent in 1966. He received early recognition from his participation in ‘Freeze’, a student-curated exhibition at the Surrey Docks in London Docklands in 1988, which exhibited the work of Goldsmiths’ students who would later come to be loosely known as the ‘YBA’s’ (Young British Artists). Only two years after graduation, Davenport had his first solo exhibition at Waddington Galleries in 1990, and in the same year, his work was included in ‘The British Art Show’, touring to Leeds City Art Gallery and Hayward Gallery, London. He was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1991, and in 1999, was awarded the John Moores Painting Prize. Davenport has been the subject of numerous exhibitions worldwide, with solo museum shows at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham and Tate Liverpool. He is the subject of a forthcoming major survey exhibition at Dallas Contemporary in September 2018. His work is held in important museum collections throughout the world, including Tate, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; FNAC Fonds National d’art contemporain, France; Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal; and Dallas Museum of Art, Texas.