Stanley Greaves is a painter and writer who was born in a "tenement yard" on Carmichael Street, Georgetown, Guyana. He studied Art in Guyana with Edward Burrowes in the Working Peoples' Art Class, 1948-61. Attended University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the UK 1963-68 did painting, majoring in sculpture for the B.A.Hons degree in Fine Art. He also did the Diploma in Art Teaching. He was a Fulbright Scholar from 1979 to 1980 at Howard University, where he did printmaking and sculpture for the MFA degree. From 1975 to 1986 he was head of the Division of Creative Arts at the University of Guyana. He left Guyana in 1987, and has been resident in Barbados since that time.
He is one of the Caribbean's most distinguished artists with major exhibitions in the UK (The Elders, with Brother Everald Brown) and Europe as well as throughout the Caribbean. He works mainly in painting, but has also produced sculpture, drawings, prints and pottery. In addition to this he is also a keen student of the classical guitar having studied with Francisco Gonzalez of Cuba and Pam Frost of Barbados.
In Guyana he taught at Sacred Heart Primary, St. Stanislaus College (his old schools) Berbice High School, Queen's College, from 1971 to 1975 and was the first Head of the Division of Creative Arts at the University of Guyana from 1975 to 1987. He was awarded Guyana National Honours (The Golden Arrow of Achievement) in 1975. He has exhibited at national level winning several prizes and has had man shows. He represented Guyana twice at the São Paulo Bienniale and once at the Medellin Bienniale in Colombia. His collection of poems "Horizons" published by Peepal Tree Press in 2002 won the Guyana Prize for Literature in the first book of poems category.
In Barbados he has served on the first art and craft panel designing the syllabus for the Caribbean Examinations Council and has been a part-time tutor at the Barbados Community College. He was elected a Distinguished Honourable Fellow at University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus in 2003. He has exhibited at national level winning several prizes and has had one man shows. He also won a gold medal for painting in the Barbados entry at the Santo Domingo Bienniale.