Stephen Quay

Biography

Stephen Quay was born in 1947 in Norristown, Pennsylvania, USA. He studied illustration at the Philadelphia College of Art and later continued his education at the Royal College of Art in London, where he met his twin brother Timothy and began collaborating in animation. Together, they founded Atelier Koninck and produced their first experimental short films in the late 1970s. Throughout his career, Stephen has directed and co-directed short films, feature films, and stop-motion projects, including Nocturna Artificialia (1979), Street of Crocodiles (1986), Institute Benjamenta (1995), and The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes (2005). His work is characterized by dreamlike, detailed, and symbolic worlds, often using dolls and carefully crafted objects to create surreal and unsettling atmospheres.

Known For

Quay

as Self

The Falls

as Ipson Fallari

The Phantom Museum: Random Forays Into the Vaults of Sir Henry Wellcome's Medical Collection

as Librarian

The Bug Trainer

as Self - stop-motion animator

The Music of Zdeněk Liška

as Self

The 1000 Eyes of Dr Maddin

Inside The Institute

The Art of Time

The Making of "The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes"

Behind the Scenes with the Quay Brothers

as Self