Damien Hirst

Damien Hirst was born June 7, 1965 in Bristol and grew up
in Leeds. In 1984 he moved to London, where he worked
in
construction before studying for a BA in Fine Art at
Goldsmiths College from 1986 to 1989. Whilst in his
second
year, he conceived and curated a group exhibition entitled
‘Freeze’. The show is commonly acknowledged to have
been
the launching point not only for Hirst, but for a generation
of British artists. The group is called ‘Young British Artists‘,
Hirst and Tracey Emin are the most prominent members.

Since the late 1980s, Hirst has used a varied practise of
installation, sculpture, painting and drawing to explore the
complex relationships between art, life and death,
explaining: “Art’s about life and it can’t really be about
anything else... there isn’t anything else.” Through work
that includes the iconic shark in formaldehyde, ‘The
Physical
Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living’
(1991) and ‘For the Love of God’ (2007), a platinum cast
of a skull set with 8,601 flawless pavé-set diamonds, he
investigates and challenges contemporary belief systems,
and dissects the uncertainties at the heart of human
experience.