Alison Lapper
1965– · British painter and artist, subject of the sculpture Alison Lapper Pregnant
Alison Lapper (born 7 April 1965 in Burton-on-Trent) is a British artist who has made her own body the central subject of her work. Born without arms and with shortened legs due to phocomelia, she became a prominent figure in debates about disability and beauty in contemporary art, above all after Marc Quinn's sculpture showing her pregnant.
After an early life spent partly in institutions and a education at specialist schools, she studied Fine Art at the University of Brighton, graduating with a first-class honours degree in 1994. She began with landscapes and conventional portraits, but gradually focused on her own body, working with photography, digital imaging and painting, often using her mouth or foot. She has cited the Venus de Milo as an influence, given the physical resemblances between the classical statue and her own figure.
In 2003 she was awarded an MBE for services to art. Quinn's sculpture stood on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square from 2005 to 2007, and a large replica appeared at the 2012 Paralympic opening ceremony. After the death of her son Parys in 2019, she helped set up The Drug of Art, a charity that encourages young people to make art as a way of addressing mental health issues.