LONDON.- Cindy Sherman was born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, 1954. She studied art at Buffalo State College (1972–6), concentrating on photography. Her photographs are portraits of herself in various scenarios that parody stereotypes of woman. A panoply of characters and settings are drawn from sources of popular culture: old movies, television soaps and pulp magazines. While the mood of Sherman's early works ranges from quiet introspection to provocative sensuality, there are elements of horror and decay in the series from 1988–9.

Her work has been the subject of countless major international exhibitions including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1997), the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Musée d'art Contemporain de Bordeaux, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, and Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (1997–2000); the Serpentine Gallery, London and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (2003), and the Jeu de Paume, Paris (2006), Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria, Louisiana Museum for Moderne Kunst, Denmark, and Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin (2006–2007).

Cindy Sherman has also worked as a film director; her first film was Office Killer in 1997, starring Jeanne Tripplehorn, Molly Ringwald and Carol Kane.

Cindy Sherman will take part in the RA’s GSK Contemporary – Aware: Art Fashion Identity from 2 December 2010 to 30 January 2011.

The Royal Academy of Arts is governed by 80 Royal Academicians who are all practising painters, sculptors, engravers, printmakers, draughtsmen and architects. Elections are held annually and new Members are voted in by existing RAs.

Honorary Academicians are distinguished artists who are not resident in the UK. A maximum of two per year may be appointed by the RAs.