Tai-Shan Schierenberg studied at St. Martin’s School of Art, and graduated from the Slade School of Art in 1987. In 1989 he won first prize in the National Portrait Gallery’s John Player Portrait Award, now better known as the BP Portrait Award. He was then commissioned to paint Sir John Mortimer for the Gallery. The National Portrait Gallery also holds his portraits of Lord Carrington, Lord Sainsbury, and Seamus Heaney. Other noted commissions include Professor Stephen Hawking and Sir John Madejski. His work has been the subject of a solo exhibition at Bradford Museum, UK. Schierenberg also appears as a judge on the Sky Arts series’ Landscape Artist of the Year and Portrait Artist of the Year. Schierenbeg has been consistently likened to Auerbach and Freud and has had a strong market since the 1980's.