Shaun Tan grew up in an isolated suburb in Western Australia, the son of parents who had immigrated to the country. He currently works full time as a freelance artist and author, concentrating mostly on writing and illustrating picture books. His childhood had a significant impact on his art, with themes of identity and belonging running through his book.
Shaun has recently worked for Blue Sky Studios and Pixar, providing concept artwork for forthcoming films. He has received numerous awards for his picture books, including the coveted Book of the Year Award at the 2008 Angoulême Festival, for his textless picture book ‘The Arrival’.

Shaun was chosen to take part in our 'Watch This Space 2' exhibition by comics historian Paul Gravett.

Shaun Tan’s Arrival is a highpoint in the recent worldwide resurgence of textless, so-called ‘silent’ comics. 
Quite apart from the sheer imagination and richness of each of his images, Tan demonstrates the extraordinary communicative power of pictures without words unfolding in sequence. His book invites us into a primal, pre-verbal altered state where we have to make sense of our surroundings purely through what we see, not what we read, like a newborn child. The effect is disorienting, dream-like, asking us to slow us down, contemplate and decipher. 
What better way to convey the strangeness and wonder of a world that is constantly unknown and new to us?"

– Paul Gravett

Paul Gravett is a London-based freelance journalist, curator, lecturer, writer and broadcaster. He curates and consults on comic art exhibitions and TV series, including last year’s Cult Fiction, a Hayward Gallery touring exhibition, and Comics Britannia for BBC4. He started the ComICA festival in 2003 at London’s ICA, and has written authoritative books on manga, graphic novels and British comics.
Paul Gravett's website