Born in England in 1962, Tai Shan Schierenberg grew up in an artistic environment, frequently visiting London museums and art galleries. The son of a Malaysian mother and German father, who was himself a painter, the artist spent part of his childhood in Malaysia before going to a primary school in London and pursued his studies in a grammar school in Germany. After travelling through Europe, he went back to London, where he graduated from the Slade School of Art in 1987.

Since his first prize in the National Portrait Gallery's John Player Portrait Award, which he won in 1989, the artist has been highly regarded for his portraits. The National Portrait Gallery commissioned the artist for a portrait of playwright Sir John Mortimer and acquired portraits of Lord Carrington, Lord Sainsbury, and Seamus Heaney.

Although well known for portraiture, landscape paintings also held an important place in Schierenberg's work. It is particularly in Norfolk, an area to which he was introduced by his wife, that the artist has developed his landscapes, executed with expressive brushstrokes. Schierenberg has been deeply inspired by the atmosphere and simplicity of Norfolk's landscapes and declared that although he found these landscapes depressing at first, '[…] some of [his] best pictures have been made there […]' and [he] now loves the place.'1

The artist had his first solo shows in Ireland and London in 1992 and has been represented by Flowers East, with which his work has been regularly exhibited. His work is held in public collections such as the National Portrait Gallery, the Tate Gallery in London, and Chatsworth House in Derbyshire.

1 Tai-Shan Schierenberg (2005) Landscape. In: Packer, W. Tai-Shan Schierenberg, 2014 Edition, Great Britain, Flowers, p. 65.