Simon English, born in Berlin in 1959, is a British contemporary artist who lives and works in London. His early years were marked by personal loss, as his father, a British soldier, died in a car accident when English was just two and a half years old, after which the family relocated to Dorset. Drawing became an escape from a young age, and he pursued formal training with a foundation course at Bournemouth College of Art from 1977 to 1978, followed by a BA Honours in Fine Art Painting at the Central School of Art and Design in London from 1978 to 1981.

English emerged on the London art scene in 1994 with an exhibition of paintings at the Saatchi Gallery as part of Young British Artists III. He is best known for his prolific, drawing-based practice, creating large- and small-scale “painted drawings” using ink, pen, graphite, and watercolour, often arranged in expansive grids that function as diaries of the subconscious. These works blend tight draughtsmanship with a playfully sloppy application of colour and line, incorporating diaristic musings, song lyrics, poetry, and humorous one-liners. Key themes include gay culture, pop music, love, loss, and recovery, with imagery ranging from intricate imagined botanicals to anamorphic, cartoon-like figures that mutate into sensual or homoerotic forms. Through this compulsive act of making, English confronts profound personal experiences with spontaneity and stream-of-consciousness energy.

Among his notable works are pieces such as Chair Diptych and Sugar Plum Fairy, held in public collections, alongside later sculptures and canvases that expand his graphic languages. He has exhibited widely, including a major three-storey solo show titled Your Top Is My Bottom at Transpalette Centre d’Art Contemporain in Bourges in 2020, as well as presentations at Tate Britain, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen, MAC VAL in Paris, and galleries in Berlin and London. His practice evolved to include sculptural assemblages from 2014 onward, often pairing independent canvases into diptychs with a sense of chance and pairing.

English’s legacy endures through his inclusion in prestigious collections such as the Tate, British Museum, Saatchi Collection, Arts Council Collection, and Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. As a distinctive voice in contemporary British art, his work continues to explore the inner psyche with raw intimacy and visual exuberance, influencing discussions around personal narrative, identity, and the boundaries between drawing and painting. He remains active, with recent exhibitions affirming his ongoing contribution to the field.