Fiona Rae was born in Hong Kong but has lived most of her life in England. She insists that there was nothing in her childhood to predict a career as a painter. She admits to having won the painting prize at a local festival when she was ten years old, but dismisses the notion that this was prophetic, since she also won a swimming prize, but didn't become a swimmer.

In 1984 she enrolled at Goldsmith's College in London where she studied with Michael Craig-Martin, the teacher seen as most responsible for fostering the conceptual work associated with the school. She also studied at the Croydon College of Art in London.

Rae's work could hardly be called 'cool'; she paints with brightly colored, madly colliding images and styles....