Born in 1981 in Toronto, Stephen Appleby-Barr lives and works in London, UK. His paintings weave together the fantastical and the everyday, conjuring a dreamlike world which verges on the uncanny. Combining his modern sensibility with a sensitive and masterly use of oil paints that recalls the work of Old Masters, Appleby-Barr creates playful and seemingly timeless visions that evoke the ambiguity of selfhood. The fundamental tenets of his artistic practice are painting, sculpture and drawing – what the artist calls ‘PSD’ – and through which he interprets the world. He is a prolific draughtsman, both from life and imagined, and also creates intricate miniature sculptures and maquettes that he uses in preparation for his paintings, perfecting the scale of his compositions before recreating them on canvas.

Appleby-Barr’s work has been exhibited across Canada, the United States and Europe. His first show with Robilant+Voena took place in Paris in 2021, followed by an exhibition in Milan in 2022, spotlighting Appleby-Barr's extraordinary talent for drawing. In 2023, his works were the focus of a solo exhibition at the Canada House Gallery in London. Simultaneously, the exhibition Correspondence, curated by Daniel Strong at the Grinnell College Museum of Art in Iowa, marked a watershed moment in the artist's career, constituting his inaugural institutional showcase in the United States.

Appleby-Barr's most recent exhibition, entitled Mesocosmos, took place at Robilant+Voena in London, from 23 May - 8 August 2025.