Born in South Africa in 1957, Guy Portelli is a past president of the Royal Society of British Artists and a Fellow of the Royal British Society of Sculptors. He is also a Director of STRARTA Art Fair and of SEEART. He is a well known figure in the art world and has exhibited throughout the UK and internationally, having work in many private and public art collections. 

Portelli was already a renowned and successful sculptor with an impressive reputation when in 2008 he appeared on BBC television's 'Dragons Den' and walked away with three dragons and a larger investment than he had asked for. The investment was to fund a long term project which Guy had been working on for over thirty years - his Pop Icon series. Here Guy has visited the icons of each decade and produced sculptures that are not portraits in the traditional sense, but which explore the celebrity persona, its influences on society and the society that produced it.

The design of the pieces are quite disparate, but each in their way personify the subject.