Brad Faine was born and raised in Brighton, England. He is the son of a Royal Australian Air Force bomber pilot and a British cabaret singer and was born in 1945. He studied Fine Arts (Painting) at Leicester College of Art, where he achieved a Dip Ad (Hons) under the tutelage of Harry Thubron, an early proponent of conceptual art. Subsequently, he completed a Post Graduate ATC course at Goldsmiths in London. During his time at Leicester, Faine developed the first truly playable three-dimensional Chess set, which was exhibited at the 'Invention of Problems' Exhibition at the ICA. He was also responsible for the concept for ‘Inter-play,’ one of the two British entries for the 1968 Paris Biennale.
On leaving University in 1972, Brad and his wife Jane founded Coriander Studio, which grew from a cottage industry into an internationally renowned maker and publisher of limited-edition silk-screens and, more recently, digital prints. The Studio has, over the last 40 years, has worked with more than 300 artists ranging from Henri Chopin (one of the world’s leading exponents of sound poetry) to Romain de Tirtoff known as Erté, Patrick Huges, John Hoyland, Richard Hamilton, Peter Blake, and Michael Craig-Martin to Damien Hirst.
In addition to being the Managing Director of Coriander Studio, he has taught printmaking as a visiting lecturer at various art schools including St Martins College of Art and Design, West Sussex College of Art (Farnham), and the Royal Academy of Art. Faine, while teaching at the Royal Academy also had a one-man show in the ever-popular, Coffee Bar Gallery.
Faine has been involved in many collaborative demonstrations of print-making including a Granada Television film with Patrick Hughes, Brendan Neiland and Michael Rothenstein, and a print project with Bruce McLean of the Victoria and Albert Museum. He has also been a guest speaker at some national and international printmaking symposia.
Throughout Coriander's 40-year company history, Faine has continued to work as a painter and printmaker in his own right. He has worked in many private and public collections in the UK, the USA, and throughout the Middle East, as many of his mixed shows were hosted in London, New York, Dubai, and Tokyo. Recent exhibitions include a one-man show at the Chelsea Arts Club, which was a major joint print show with Peter Blake and Brendan Neiland at the Leicester City Art Gallery. He also had a solo show at the London Sketch Club, and at 45 Park Lane (the Cut), with a three-month exhibition with Steve Thomas at Chelsea Future Space.
In 1984, Faine was responsible for initiating the concept of 'Visual Aid for Band-Aid,' and along with Peter Blake, Graham Bannister and Gordon House was an integral part in the organization of 104 artists and the production of an edition of 500 prints. The proceeds of this project went to the Band Aid Trust.
In 1989, Faine was invited to write The New Guide to Screen Printing, which was published by Hodder Headline. Subsequently, he has written articles for books on artists such as Terry Frost, Brendan Neiland, and Peter Blake.
His prints have been published by Christie's Contemporary Art, Coriander Studio, Art for Offices, Anderson O'Day and CCA Galleries in the UK, Kane Fine Art, Greg Croston, and recently Chalk and Vermilion the USA. His works are held in the corporate collections of many international companies including BMW, British Rail, and Epson UK. All of Faine's prints and canvasses are available through Faine Contemporary Art.
The year 2014 saw the first one-man show of his printed works on canvass at ’ Dark Matter Studio Gallery’. This change in direction was at the suggestion of art colleague, Bruce McLean, who thought the prints should be larger so the detail of the individual elements that constituted them would be more visible. However, the problem with enlarging the prints was that the paper seemed too thin for the sizes at which he wanted to work. This issue also brought on safety concerns and the inherited costs when using large glass frames made them prohibitive. The solution was to make canvasses which solved the size and framing problem, as they do need to be framed and also added the opportunity to hand-work the pieces.
Faine has written some articles and introductions books and catalogs for artists with whom he has worked. This year his novel, A Killing in Prospect, is published and available on Kindle. The story is a work of fiction, concerning a series of incidents that were rumored have occurred in and around the 1988 New York Art Fair, amongst that group of dealers known collectively as 'Art Runners.'
2015 was notable for Faine as it was the year in which he had his first one-man show in Mayfair, called ‘iPrints’ at The Albemarle Gallery. He also exhibited with Brendan Neiland and Simon Burton at the GX Gallery. Ray Perman of the Grosvenor Gallery saw the Albemarle show and introduced Brad to David Rogath, Director of Chalk and Vermilion Galleries in the USA. David commissioned 6 editions, each comprising 8 monoprint colorways, of works on canvas to show at the ten major galleries he owns throughout America.
