Stephanie Villalba is Director and founder of Chelsea Fine Arts – London Art Studio, Courses, Creative Space and Gallery.
Her artistic family background and international experience have given her access and connections in the art world which underpin Chelsea Fine Arts’ strengths in developing artistic talent in young people.
Stephanie has been immersed in the art world from birth due to a family heritage replete with a long line of famous artists and architects:
Dario Villalba Florez
Stephanie’s uncle is a celebrated Spanish artist, who has exhibited globally and was voted a permanent member of the elite San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 2002. In 2003, Dario Villalba received the Gold Medal for Fine Arts from King Juan Carlos of Spain for his contribution to Fine Arts. Dario Villalba has just had his fifty year career retrospective, Dario Villalba – Una Vision Antalogica 1957 – 2007 at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid Spain.
Antonio Florez Urdapilleta
Stephanie’s paternal great grandfather was a painter, architect, university professor and a scholar of fine arts in Spain in the first half of the 20th century. He was a permanent member of the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts and was a great friend of the impressionist painter Joaquin Sorolla (1863 – 1923). Although an extraordinary painter and professor, Antonio Florez is best known for building and designing numerous academic institutions in Spain between 1924 and 1929 and for the plans to reconstruct the Teatro Real in Madrid in 1926.
Josefa Florez Gallegos
Stephanie’s paternal grandmother was a painter and architect. She was one of the first women architects in Spain to be accepted into the Escuela de Arquitectura de Madrid.
Jose Gallegos y Arnoso
Stephanie’s great, great grandfather was a well known painter who lived and worked in Rome. He was a student and disciple of the Spanish painter Fortuny.
