Brothers Jake and Dinos Chapman (British, b.1966; b.1962) are sculptors, printmakers, and installation artists who work together as a duo. Having graduated from the Royal College of Art in London in 1990, their first critical success was Disasters of War (1991), a diorama-like sculptural piece comprised of reclaimed plastic figurines arranged to resemble the scene from the Francisco de Goya (Spanish, 1746-1828) painting of the same name. The Chapman brothers worked as assistants for another well-known British artist pair, Gilbert and George (British/Italian, b.1943; British, b.1942); despite this connection, the two sets of artists work in distinctly different styles. The work of the brothers Chapman is often darkly humorous, hostile, and subversive, and the artists are cited as describing viewers’ laughter and reaction to their works as more significant than the work itself. In addition to their dioramas, the Chapmans are known for their mannequin-like sculptural works, which often resemble conjoined Barbie dolls and feature genitalia in unexpected places. By finding inspiration in both high culture and mass culture, such as Hieronymus Bosch (Flemish, c.1450-1516) and McDonald’s fast food, the Chapmans bring both gravity and comedy to their work. Their art has been exhibited in venues around the world, such as the Gagosian Gallery in New York, the White Cube Gallery in London, the Tate Britain in London, the Triumph Gallery in Moscow, and PS1 Contemporary Art Center in New York, among many others. The artists live and work in London.

Timeline

1962
Born: in London (Dinos Chapman)
1966
Born: in Cheltenham, UK (Jake Chapman)
1981
BA at the Ravensbourne College of Art, London, UK (Dinos Chapman)
1988
BA at the North East London Polytechnic, London, UK (Jake Chapman)
1990
MA at the Royal College of Art, London, UK (Dinos Chapman and Jake Chapman)
2003
Nominated for Turner Prize 2003
Royal Academy of Arts Charles Wollaston Award (at the Summer Exhibition)
Currently live and work in London, UK

Exhibitions

2010
The sun will shine brightly on your rotting corpse, Whilst your bones glimmer in the moonlight, ProjectB Gallery, Milan, Italy
2010
Shoebox Art, Haunch of Venison, London, UK
Magic Show , Quad Gallery, Derby, UK
Crash, Gagosian Gallery, Britannia St., London, UK
Curious, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, Germany
2009
Once Upon A Time In Hastings, Hastings Museum & Art Gallery, Hastings, UK (solo)
Shitrospective, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany (solo)
My Giant Colouring Book, Touring to The Gallery - Petersfield, Queens Hall, Hexham and Burton Art Gallery, Bideford, UK (solo)
2008
Jake and Dinos Chapman: Little Death Machines, L&M Arts, New York, NY (solo)
If Hitler had been a hippy how happy would we be, White Cube Mason’s Yard, London, UK (solo)
Laughing in a Foreign Language, The Hayward Gallery, London, UK
You dig the tunnel – I’ll hide the soil, White Cube Hoxton Square and Shoreditch Town Hall, London, UK
Les Caprices de Goya, Palais des Beaux Arts de Lille, Lille, France
Traces du Sacré (Traces of the spiritual in 20th century art), Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany
2007
Summer Exhibition 2007, Annenberg Courtyard, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
Into Me/ Out of Me, MACRO Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rome, Italy
Meet the Artists: Jake, Paul, George and Dinos, Deitch Projects, New York, NY
Aftershock: Contemporary British Art 1990-2006, Capital Museum, Beijing, China
Jake & Dinos Chapman and John Currin – etchings from the Collection of Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden
Two Legs Bad, Four Legs Good, Paradise Row, London, UK (solo)
When Humans Walked the Earth, Tate Britain, London, UK (solo)
Your Mind Is A Nightmare That Has Been Eating You: Now Eat Your Mind, Triumph Gallery, Moscow, Russia (solo)
PLAY, Bearspace, Deptford, London, UK
2006
Aftershock: Contemporary British Art 1990-2006, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
Works from the Frank Cohen Collection, The New Art Gallery Walsall, Walsall, UK
With the Artists: New Paintings by Jake, Paul, George and Dinos, RS&A, London, UK
Surprise Surprise, Institute of Contemporary Art, London, UK
The François Pinault Collection – A Post-Pop Selection, Palazzo Grazzi, Venice, Italy
Eretica, Museum Sant’Anna, Palermo, Italy
People, Museo D’Arte Contemporanea Donna Regina Napoli, Naples, Italy
Scarecrow, The Evangelos Averrof-Tositsas Foundation, Athens, Greece
Bad Art for Bad People, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, UK (solo)
Into Me/Out of Me, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York; KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
Summer Exhibition 2006, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
INFINITE PAINTING: Contemporary Painting and Global Realism, Villa Manin Centro D’Arte Contemporanea, Passariano, Italy
Little Private Governments, University of Essex, Essex, UK
ARS 06, Museum of Contemporary Art KIASMA, Helsinki, Finland
Hirst and his Contemporaries, Andipa Gallery, London, UK
2005
Like a dog returns to its vomit, White Cube, London, UK (solo)
Explaining Christians to Dinosaurs, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz, Austria (solo)
The Artist With Two Brains, Saint Pauls Church, Birmingham, UK
The Wonderful Fund On Tour, Le Musee de Marrakech, Marrakech, Morocco
Family Affairs-Brothers and Sisters in Art, Haus der Kunst, Munich; Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels, Belgium
Baroque and Neo Baroque, Domus Atrium, Salamanca, Spain
Video II: Allegory, NRW-Furum Kultur und Wirtschaft, Dusseldorf, Germany
Vertigos, Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse, France
When Humour Becomes Painful, Migros Museum, Zurich, Switzerland
Summer Exhibition 2005, Royal Academy, London, UK
London Calling. Y[oung] B[ritish] A[rtists] Criss-Crossed, Galleri Kaare Berntsen, Oslo, Norway
Bidibidobidiboo,Palazzo Re Rebaudengo, Piazza del Municipio, Guarene d’Alba. Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin. Cavallerizza Chiablese e Salone delle Guardie, Turin, Italy
Body: New Art from the UK, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
Child’s Play, Rohkunstbau, Berlin, Germany
Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Visual Art, Glasgow Print Studio, Glasgow, Scotland
In Print: Contemporary British Art from the Paragon Press, Taipei Museum of Fine Art, Taipei, Taiwan
Mixed-up Childhood. An Exhibition for Grown-ups, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Critic’s Choice, FACT, Liverpool, UK
2004
The New and Improved Andrex Works, Thomas Olbricht Collection, Essen, Germany (solo)
Insult to Injury, Kunst Sammlungen der Veste, Coburg, Germany (solo)
The Christmas Exhibition 2004, Edinburgh Printmakers, Edinburgh, Scotland
Paper Democracy. Contemporary Art in Editions on Paper, Edifício Cultura Inglesa, São Paulo, Brazil
The Charged Image, Collection of Douglas Cramer, Joseloff Gallery, Hartford, CT
Deliver Us From Evil, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, NY
After Images, Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen, Germany
In Print: Contemporary British Art from the Paragon Press Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Singapore
At War, CCCB, Barcelona, Spain
Lonely Planet, Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki, Japan
Mike Kelley: The Uncanny, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
Gewalt, Loushy Art & Editions, Tel Aviv, Israel
2003
Jake & Dinos Chapman, The Saatchi Gallery, London, UK (solo)
The Rape Of Creativity, Modern Art Oxford, UK (solo)
Jake & Dinos Chapman, Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf, Germany (solo)
The Turner Prize, Tate Britain, London, UK
Reception 1, Reception, London, UK
FRESH: Contemporary British Artists in Print, Edinburgh Printmakers, Edinburgh, Scotland
Independence, South London Gallery, London, UK
Did you hear about that frog who wanted to be a prince?, Egg, London, UK
The Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
Mars. Art and War, Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz, Austria
Coollustre, Collection Lambert en Avignon, France
2002
Works from the Chapman Family Collection, White Cube, London, UK (solo)
Jake and Dinos Chapman, Groninger Museum, Groninger, Germany (solo)
Rapture: Art’s Seduction by Fashion Since 1970, Barbican Gallery, London, UK
In Print: Contemporary British Art from the Paragon Press, Art Pavilion Cvijeta Zuzoric, Belgrade, Serbia; Centre of Graphics and Printmaking and Akhmatova Museum, St Petersburg, Russia; Musuem of Art, Tel-Aviv, Israel
Art Crazy Nation Show, Milton Keynes Gallery, Milton Keynes, UK
2001
Jackie & Denise Chapwoman. New Work, Modern Art, London, UK (solo)
Utopien heute?, Kunstverein Ludwigshafen e.V., Ludwigshafen, Germany
Francisco Goya and Jake and Dinos Chapman: The Disasters of War, Musée desBeaux-Arts de Montréal, Québec, Canada
Die Sammlung Olbricht Teil 2. Without Hesitation, Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst & Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen, Germany
Paper Assets: Collecting Prints and Drawings 1996-2001, The British Museum, London, UK
Under the Skin. Biological Transformations in Contemporary Art, Stiftung Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, Germany
2000
Jake & Dinos Chapman, Kunst Werke, Berlin, Germany (solo)
Jake & Dinos Chapman. GCSE Art Exam, The Art Ginza Space, Tokyo, Japan (solo)
To Infinity and Beyond: Editions for the Year 2000, Brooke Alexander Gallery, New York, NY
Drawings and Photographs, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, NY
Disasters of War. Francisco de Goya, Henry Darger and Jake and Dinos Chapman, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Centre, New York, NY
Jake & Dinos Chapman and Francisco Goya y Lucientes, The Power Plant, Toronto, Canada
Apocalypse: Beauty and horror in contemporary art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
ManMoMa. A Thick Bloke Kicking a Dog to Death, The International 3 Summer Fête, Fairfield, Manchester, UK
The Pölstar Art Programme, Leicester Square, London, UK
Ant Noises II, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
Gut aufgelegt, Griffelkunst, Hamburg, Germany
Sex and the British, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg / Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
Nervous Kingdom, Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool, UK
Out There, White Cube², London, UK
Drawn From Life, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY
1999
Jake & Dinos Chapman, Fig.1, London, UK (solo)
Disasters of War, Jay Jopling/White Cube, London, UK (solo)
1998
Dinos & Jake Chapman, Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris, France (solo)
1997
Six Feet Under, Gagosian Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
1996
P-House, Tokyo, Japan (solo)
Zero Principle, Giò Marconi, Milan, Italy (solo)
Chapmanworld, Institute of Contemporary Art, London / Grazer Kunstverein, Graz, Austria (solo)
1995
Solo Exhibition, Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York (solo)
Zygotic acceleration, biogenetic, de-sublimated libidinal model (enlarged x 1000), Victoria Miro Gallery, London (solo)
Bring Me the Head of Franco Toselli!, Ridinghouse Editions, London (solo)
Five Easy Pissers, Andréhn-Schiptjenko Gallery, Stockholm (solo)
1994
Great Deeds Against the Dead, Victoria Miro Gallery, London (solo)
Mummy & Daddy, Galeria Franco Toselli, Milan (solo)
1993
The Disasters of War, Victoria Miro Gallery, London (solo)
1992
We Are Artists, Hales Gallery, London; Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool (solo)

Public Collections

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf, Germany
Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy
Tate Gallery, London, UK