Sanctuary: Britain's artists and their studios

Pink flyer with some legs and trainers on — Over a hundred distinguished members of the British artistic community have opened up their workspaces for the definitive state of the nation monograph. Photography: Robin Friend

(Image credit: Robin Friend)

The shake-up of the British art scene is finally complete, and the enfants terribles are the new establishment. Not that the original establishment ever really left - they just took a back seat, happy to let the young turks take centre stage. Now the working practices of 120 distinguished members of the British artistic community, from Maggi Hambling through to the Chapman brothers, have opened up their workspaces and working methods for the definitive state of the nation monograph.

Sanctuary is subtitled 'Britain's artists and their Studios,' but it may as well be called a field guide to the habitats of the contemporary artist, so comprehensive is its overview of the working environments of 120 of the country's best-known practitioners.

Here are the lofts, mews, sheds, warehouses and purpose-built studios of the new artistic elite, a diverse range of work spaces that help contemporary chart art's shift towards large-scale productions - the factory-like set-ups of Tony Cragg or Antony Gormley.

There are smaller practitioners on display as well, offering a rich insight into the emerging creative enclaves that have helped re-draw London's socio-economic map in the past few decades.

Each profile is made up of a Q&A that attempts to uncover the artist's relationship to their studio and the wider world beyond it, be it in London's East End or the wilds of Gloucestershire, and the role that space, time and solitude have on their work.

Red art sculptures shaped like people — Antony Gormley's purpose-built, 930-square-metre studio, north of Kings Cross, in London

Tracey Emin sat in her studio — Tracey Emin in her studio in Spitalfields, London

Grayson Perry at work in his studio in London's Walthamstow, surrounded by finished and half finished sculptures and vases

Man stood on top of plant display — 'Concrete with legs: Roger Hiorns'. The artist has his studio in an empty shop at the end of the road of the Alexandra Road housing estate in London. Art, artist and architecture combine in this surreal image

Ged Quinn seated atop the scaffolding he uses for his larger paintings in his studio in Penzance, Cornwall

Liam Gillick looking out the window in his home in New York — Liam Gillick in his home in New York. He alternates between his homes in both New York and London. He doesn't own a studio

Hannah Starkey, photographed beside the remnants of a Hindu wedding ceremony, dumped in a back yard near her studio in London's Bethnal Green

Tony Bevan at work in his studio in Deptford, London

Jonathan Bell has written for Wallpaper* magazine since 1999, covering everything from architecture and transport design to books, tech and graphic design. He is now the magazine’s Transport and Technology Editor. Jonathan has written and edited 15 books, including Concept Car Design, 21st Century House, and The New Modern House. He is also the host of Wallpaper’s first podcast.