Len Breen

Len Breen was born in Melbourne, attended Melbourne University, School of Architecture and Central St Martin's School of Art and Design.

He first practiced architecture in Australia, then travelled and worked as an architect in Sri Lanka, Italy and the United Kingdom. He was also site architect on important archaeological excavations in Kerman in Iran and Kandahar in Afghanistan.

He suspended a successful career in architecture to focus on his art. He studied printmaking at Central St Martins School of Art, from where he achieved much distinction as a master printmaker and then joined the Poster Film Collective where he designed and produced posters for third world groups gaining international recognition for his graphic art. He collaborated, at that time, with the Spanish sculptor, Juan Munoz, producing posters on South American social and economic issues.

Later, he carried out a number of important commissions for Amnesty International as well as many other organisations, including CND, War On Want, and others. Significantly, he was a leading contributor to the London Against Racism advertising campaign.

Over the years, he has exhibited internationally, winning numerous awards and prizes for his drawings and posters. As well as having his work in many private collections across the world, his work can be seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Gallery of Australia and public museums in Lahti, Moscow and Paris, also, in Germany, Poland, and Iraq. He has been a member of the ACAVA artists collective since 1983, contributing to many community and performance art events. Through BBB Press, he has published a number of artist's books of his prints and drawings.

Through teaching he became involved with computer graphic art. At Middlesex University he pioneered what became, the Centre for Computer Arts and while its leader, aided its shift to the centre of the academic arena. At the same time, he became a major ambassador for computer graphic arts, expertise and creativity. He created a wide range of computer aided drawing programs for art and design, as well as tutorial guides to both traditional and computer related art. As well as producing a number of computer animations for television, he was one of the first artists to design and implement a www site for his graphic art.

Len Breen has been a leading educationalist, teaching, writing and researching in all aspects of visual art and communication at post- and undergraduate levels to students of many disciplines including art, design and engineering.

Len has travelled widely in Europe, Asia, North America and Australia. He now lives and works in the United Kingdom in London and Farnborough.