b. 1965 Bristol, UK
1989 BFA Goldsmiths College, London
Lives and works in Devon

Damien Hirst gained instant media recognition when he presented Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, 1991, a tiger shark in a vitrine filled with formaldehyde at the 1992 Young British Artists exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery. For this work, then 27-year-old artist was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 1992. Hirst won the 1995 Turner Prize for Some Went Mad, Some Ran Away, an exhibition that he had curated at Serpentine Gallery, London in 1994, where the artist displayed dissected animals in formaldehyde.

From gigantic bronze sculptures revealing the internal organs of the human body to the ‘spot’ painting series depicting uniform dots, named after narcotics and stimulants, Hirst’s art has always been concerned with the human condition and its fragile nature.

Hirst has exhibited worldwidely including solo exhibitions at Archaeological Museum, Naples in 2004, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Astrup Fearnley Museet fur Moderne Kunst, Oslo in 2005 and Essl Museum of Contemporary Art, Vienna in 2007. Recently, his For the Love of God, 2007, a platinum cast of a human skull encrusted with 8,601 diamonds sold for $100 million, setting the record of the highest price for a work by a living artist.