Damien Hirst

Damien Hirst (b. 1965) is a British artist of global reputation. He first came to public attention in 1988 when he curated Freeze, an exhibition showing his work and that of his friends at Goldsmiths College, London. Since then, Hirst has produced a huge body of challenging work ranging from installations and sculpture to painting and drawing. The major 2012 Hirst retrospective at Tate Modern, London, UK, attracted over 400,000 visitors. In 2015 Hirst opened Newport Street Gallery in Lambeth, London, as a venue to display art from his personal collection of over 3000 works. A major 2017 solo exhibition in Venice, Treasures from the Wreck of The Unbelievable, was timed to coincide with the Venice Biennale. The year 2019 saw a dozen solo and group exhibitions of Hirst’s work in Israel, Europe and the US. In a virus-hit 2020, a selection of Hirst’s most recognisable sculptures have been installed at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK, on display until 2022.