Damien Hirst

Damien Hirst was born in Bristol in the 1960s. In 1984 he moved to London, where he worked in construction before studying for a BA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths college. He was awarded the Turner Prize in 1995.

1991 saw the unveiling of arguably Hirst’s most famous series, Natural History. Through preserving creatures in minimalist steel and glass tanks filled with formaldehyde solution, he intended to create a “zoo of dead animals”. In 1992, the shark piece, ‘The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living’ was unveiled at the Saatchi Gallery.

Since the late 1980s, Damien Hirst has used a varied practise of installation, sculpture, art prints, painting and drawing to explore the complex relationship between art, life and death. “Art’s about life and it can’t really be about anything else,” he says. “There isn’t anything else.”