Anne Desmet RA was born and brought up in Liverpool, England. She has BFA and MA degrees in Fine Art from Oxford University and a Postgraduate Diploma in Printmaking from Central School of Art, London. In 2018 Anne was elected an Honorary Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford University, for 'distinction in the world of art'.
Anne exhibits wood engravings, linocuts, lithographs and mixed-media printed collages widely, has won over 40 national and international awards (including a Rome Scholarship in Printmaking; Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award, USA; three Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Awards, Montreal, Canada; and the London Original Print Fair Prize at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition) and has works in major public and private collections worldwide. The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, have each purchased significant holdings of her prints and collages over the last 25 years.
Anne has had over 30 solo shows including two major museum retrospectives at the Ashmolean (1998) and Whitworth (2008) respectively: each toured UK museums for two years. She had an earlier retrospective at Moscow's Ex Libris Museum, Russia (1995); and solo exhibitions of recent works at the Holburne Museum, Bath (2017) and Gainsborough's House Museum, Suffolk (2018).
Anne regularly teaches wood engraving classes at print workshops throughout the UK. An Honorary Fellow and former External Examiner in BA and MA Fine Art at Aberystwyth University, she was also (for four years) External Examiner in FdA and BA Fine Art at Kingston College of Art and has taught at other institutions including the RA; British Library; British Museum; Middlesex University; Ruskin School of Art, Oxford; and Manhattanville College, New York State, USA.
Anne Desmet is author of seven published books on printmaking and drawing (published variously by Bloomsbury and by the Royal Academy of Arts) and was editor of Printmaking Today magazine from 1998-2013. Commissions include engravings for the British Museum; National Gallery; British Library; V&A; Balliol and Worcester Colleges, Oxford; Sotheby's and the Royal Mint.
Anne is only the third wood engraver ever elected to membership of the Royal Academy of Arts (RA) in its 253-year history. She lives and works in London and recently curated an historic exhibition celebrating 100 years of the art of wood engraving for the Ashmolean Museum (2020) and touring UK (2022-23).