Over the last twenty years Steve McQueen has been influential in expanding the way in which artists work with film. He has been the author of some of the most seminal works of the moving image designed for gallery-based presentation, as well as three films for cinematic release, Hunger (2008), Shame (2010) and 12 Years a Slave (2013). His work hovers between the specific and the universal, the literal and the abstract. Certain works stem from McQueen's unflinching observation of the self - sometimes with ambiguous carnal undertones. Others drawn from a potent, at times bleak, political consciousness, which addresses specific historical moments. Born in London in 1969 he currently lives and works in London and Amsterdam. Solo exhibitions of this work have been held in 2017 at the ICA Boston; The Whitworth, The University of Manchester; the Pérez Art Museum Miami; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Eenwerk, Amsterdam; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2016) and Espace Louis Vuitton, Tokyo (2014). An important retrospective of his work was exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2012 and traveled to the Schaulager, Basel in 2013. McQueen represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale in 2009. Additionally, he has participated in the Venice Biennale (2015, 2013, 2007 and 2003) and at Documenta XI (2002) and X (1997). He has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Johannes Vermeer Prize (2016), Harvard University, W.E.B. Du Bois Medal (2014), Best Picture (for 12 Years A Slave), Academy Awards (2014), CBE (Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (2011), OBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) (2002) and the Turner Prize, Tate Gallery, London, England (1999).