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Anthea Alley (1927-1993) was born in Malaya and lived in Australia and South Africa during the Second World War until her family moved to London in 1944. She studied painting at the Regent Street Polytechnic, Chelsea College of Art, and at the Royal College of Art from 1951-53. She taught for several years at Bath Academy of Art, Corsham.

Alley’s early work was figurative, but by the late 1950s had evolved into abstraction. She exhibited in group exhibitions with her friend Gillian Ayres and, in 1961, Alley won a painting prize at the John Moores Liverpool Exhibition.

Originally a painter, she came to work across a variety of media and is particularly known for her work with welded metal and her metal sculptures using machine stampings left over from manufacturing processes.

She exhibited in numerous group exhibitions including Young Contemporaries in Manchester (1954) and the RA Summer Exhibitions. Her solo exhibitions include the Molton Gallery (1960); Hamilton Gallery (1964); Arts Council of Northern Ireland Gallery, Belfast (1964); Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol (1969); Bradford City Art Gallery (touring) (1969). In 2014, England & Co held a solo exhibition, Anthea Alley: Works from the 1950s and 1960s.

In 2020 she was represented in the Arts Council’s touring exhibition, Breaking the Mould, opening at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, the first extensive survey of post-war British sculpture by women in a British public institution. In 2024, Alley is represented by two works in Beyond Form: Lines of Abstraction 1950-1970 at Turner Contemporary, Margate.

Welded Object No. 1 1960
30 x 14 inches
Mixed media with welded metal on board

Exhibited: Martha Jackson Gallery, New York.

Ref: C37