Conrad Hartley Pelham Shawcross (born 26 April 1977) is a British artist specializing in mechanical sculptures based on philosophical and scientific ideas. Shawcross is the youngest living member of the Royal Academy of Arts. Early life Born in London, Shawcross is the son of biographer William Shawcross and the novelist, mythographer and cultural historian Marina Warner. Shawcross studied at Westminster School, the Chelsea School of Art, the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art (while a member of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford), and the Slade School of Fine Art (University College London). Career Imbued with an appearance of scientific rationality, Shawcross's sculptures explore subjects that lie on the borders of geometry and philosophy, physics and metaphysics. Attracted by failed quests for knowledge in the past, he often appropriates redundant theories and methodologies to create ambitious structural and mechanical montages, using a wide variety of materials and media. Shawcross was included in the 2001 exhibition of British art school graduates Bloomberg New Contemporaries. His work came to prominence at the 2004 New Blood exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery at London County Hall. He exhibited The Nervous System, a large, symmetrical, working loom producing over 20,000 metres of double-helix coloured rope every week. In December 2004, Shawcross' commission Continuum opened at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, an installation on time and maritime themes made specifically to match the history and architecture of the venue, the Queen's House.) Installations in 2009-2010 include a horizontal rope machine in the Holborn Tunnel, and a vast 60 foot high vertical version, Nervous System (Inverted) in the Sculpture Gallery, 590 Madison Avenue, New York, New York. A 14 metre long spiral cast in aluminium, Fraction (9:8), was unveiled in 2010 at the Sadler Building at the Oxford Science Park. Several of Shawcross' works were shown in the inaugural exhibition at Turner Contemporary in Margate in 2011. More recently, Shawcross has developed the scale of his practice, taking on architectural spaces with work that combines epic scope and poetic grace. Timepiece was a major new commission for the Roundhouse in 2013 in which Shawcross transformed the iconic main space of this historic London building into a vast timekeeping device. In 2015, a new series of permanent sculptures, Three Perpetual Chords was unveiled in Dulwich Park, London, following a commission by Southwark Council advised by the Contemporary Art Society to replace works by Barbara Hepworth that were stolen in