ART world royalty Eileen Cooper has picked the Swindon Museum & Art Gallery for a special retrospective of her acclaimed drawings.

Presented in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Arts, Hide and Seek celebrates a career spanning more than 40 years through a series of her most evocative pieces.

To compliment her own remarkable body of work, Cooper has selected a number of drawings from the Swindon Collection which will also be shown in the gallery.

Eileen Cooper was born 1953 in Glossop, Derbyshire. She studied at Goldsmiths College between 1971 and 1974 before enrolling in painting at the Royal College of Art under Peter de Francia, graduating in 1977.

During the 1980s she became a major player in the art world, well known and regarded for her strong and passionate figuration. Sometimes described as a magic realist, Eileen Cooper brings an unapologetically female perspective to her subject matter, which encompasses sexuality, motherhood, life and death. Her richly diverse images, simultaneously bold and tender, reveal a range of feeling that is both deeply engrossing and readily accessible, yet still very much part of contemporary art practice.

Cooper has taught in numerous institutions including Central Saint Martins, the Royal College of Art and the Royal Academy Schools. She became a Royal Academician in 2000 and in 2010 was elected Keeper of the Royal Academy, the first woman in this role since the Academy began in 1768.

As part of the exhibition, the museum will show an exclusive clip from Itch Film’s forthcoming documentary on Cooper, which is still in the early stages of production.

The free exhibition is open to the public today and tomorrow between 11am and 3pm. For more information, go to www.swindonmuseumandartgallery.org.uk.