Raphaella Beatrice Spence was born in London in 1978. When she was still a baby her family moved to France where she spent the first eight years of her life.

 

In 1986 Spence returned to London. Here her interest in art began to emerge by being exposed to the many architectural projects by her father Milton John Erwin Spence and her grandfather, Sir Basil Spence (Coventry Cathedral, Rome British Embassy, New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Hyde Park Barracks / Tower).

 

Before the birth of architectural design and rendering software, significant projects were often represented with very realistic and detailed handmade drawings, for which the Spence Office had a particularly strong reputation. These beautiful almost photo real representations realized in pencil and watercolour, were the first source of inspiration for Raphaella, who quickly started to think about figurate art in terms of connections between reality, photography and painting.

 

At the age of twelve Raphaella's family decided to move permanently to Todi (Italy) where her parents bought and restored a medieval mill immersed in the Umbrian countryside. Here began a very formative period of the artist's life who spent most of her days learning and practicing different painting technics taught by her father Milton, while in parallel completing her studies at the St. George's British International School in Rome. Finished her studies she focused full time on oil painting creating a first series of works depicting landscapes inspired by views of the Umbrian countryside.

 

In 1999 Spence held her first solo exhibition in Italy and in 2003, at the age of twenty-four, she exhibited in New York in her first solo show at the Louis K. Meisel Gallery, a gallery with whom she still exhibits.

 

During that same year Spence also participated in the exhibition entitled "Iperrealisti", her first major museum exhibition at the Chiostro del Bramante in Rome, curated by Gianni Mercurio, where she was commissioned by the American car manufacturer DaimlerChrysler Group to paint a work which represented the PT Cruiser, their latest car on the market.

 

In 2004, Spence moved to New York where she worked on a series of paintings inspired by cityscapes of the major American cities. Also from this period were a group of works based on aerial photography imaginary. As the only working female artist in the hyperrealism scene, Spence exhibited with leading artists of the current such as Richard Estes, Chuck Close, Don Eddy, Ralph Goings, and Robert Cottingham.

 

In 2005 she returned to Italy and worked on several large paintings inspired by disturbing social scenes such as violence among football fans and mass animal slaughter. A selection of these works were exhibited at the Musei Capitolini in Rome, donated to the UNHCR and auctioned by Sotheby's and Christie's.

 

Between 2003 and 2008 Spence participated with other major hyperrealist artists in a series of projects aiming at representing particular visual aspects of different cities. These assignments were funded by American and European collectors and resulted in the "Prague Project" in 2003, the "Zurich Project" in 2007, the "Monte Carlo Project" in 2008, the "Vegas Project" in 2008, and the "Beijing Project" also in 2008. As of particular relevance, Spence painted different aerial views of Monte Carlo during the Formula One Grand Prix and in the course of the Chinese Olympic Games captured several contrasting aspects between modern Beijing and the old Forbidden City. The paintings created in these projects were subsequently exhibited at the Louis K. Meisel Gallery in New York.