Anthony Daley Prettiness Diktat, 2025

Born in 1960 in Jamaica and based in London since he was seven, Anthony Daley recalls his first memory of wanting to paint: “I was four. I was in the bushes across the river from where I lived. It had rained and I looked up to the sky with the light coming through. It was the start of a love affair. I just wanted to paint it, to draw it.” 

Anthony Daley studied at Leeds University, Wimbledon College, and Chelsea College of Art, and in 1984 was awarded the Pollock-Krasner Painting Fellowship. His work is represented in collections including Tate, the National Portrait Gallery and the Dulwich Picture Gallery, where a 2022 exhibition explored Daley's career-long fascination with the work of 17th-century Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens.