Stephen and Timothy Quay were born in the US and reside in the UK. Identical twins, the brothers are at the forefront of global animation.
Animations such as Street of Crocodiles (1986), The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer (1984), In Absentia (2000) or fiction films such as Institute Benjamenta (1995), reveal the powerful influence that the rich central European cultural scene has exercised on them, particularly the work of Polish and Czech authors: graphic designers of the 50s and 60s, filmmakers and narrators like Waleryan Borowczyk, Bruno Schulz, Franz Kafka, Jan Švankmajer and Jan Lenica, or Russians Ladislas Starewitch and Yuri Norstein.
The synthesis of these and other references, such as that of the Swiss writer Robert Walser, is exquisite in their work, sublimating and offering it to new audiences thanks to the excellence of their technique, the musicality of their images and the meticulous mise-en-scene. Admirers of Švankmajer, they are the main responsible for its position with full rights in the postmodern scene of the eighties.His latest piece is inspired by the universe of the Uruguayan writer Felisberto Hernández. The MoMA in New York dedicated a great exhibition to them.
They have produced with the CCCB the audiovisual piece The Forest inside the Forest (2014) for the exhibition “Metamorphosis”.