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Tanya Raabe is a British painter who makes portraits of leading artists and activists within the disability arts movement. Her subjects range from established Disability rights campaigners such as Baroness Jane Campbell DBE to visual and performing artists such as Nabil Shaban, Founder of Graeae Theatre Company Theatre Company.

Her artworks explore themes of disability and identity through portraiture and the nude. She paints in oil on canvas in a gestural, expressionistic style using rich colour. Sandy Nairne, former director of the National Portrait Gallery, London, described her work as '..impertinent in scale and wonderfully constructed'

Background
Tanya Raabe was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire.

She studied Graphic Design at Leeds Polytechnic in 1990 gaining a BA (Hons) and an MA in Communication Design, at Manchester Metropolitan University in 1997. She did a PGCE in Higher Education from Huddersfield University.

Professional life
Since 1987 she has participated in numerous exhibitions and projects exploring concepts of identity and the disabled self. ((Ref Tate catalogue))

Notable among these are 'Who's Who' (2008) a project and exhibition at Holton Lee of nine portraits of leading artists of the Disability Arts Movement such as actor Matt Fraser and editor of DAO Colin Hambrook.

Ref Holton Lee DAO

Her 'Revealing Culture:HeadOn' project (2010 - 2011)started with an investigation of the art exhibited at Tate Liverpool and Tate Modern to highlight the absence of Disability within Tate gallery collections. Her project lead to a series of full-figure portraits and nudes, 'dedicated to past, present and future disabled cultural figures.' ref Tate catalogue. Her subjects and cultural sources ranged widely from Tom Shakespeare, sociologist and Bioethicist to Deborah Williams, writer, digital composer and theatre producer.

'Revealing Culture:HeadOn' toured galleries and events including DadaFest 10 International, Bluecoat Liverpool(2010), Plymouth University (2011), DASH Space, Shrewsbury (2011), and Solihull Arts Complex in Birmingham. ref Tate catalogue

Public collections
She has numerous works in public collections.