Gavin Turk

One of the infamous Young British Artists of the 90s, Turk's pioneering sculpture brought a new vernacular to the art world. Utilising motifs such as the painted bronze, the waxwork, the recycled art-historical icon and the use of rubbish as a material, Turk’s installations and sculptures deal with issues of authorship, authenticity and identity. Concerned with the ‘myth’ of the artist and the ‘authorship’ of a work, Turk’s engagement with this modernist, avant-garde debate stretches back to the ready-mades of Marcel Duchamp.

Although he famously failed his MA at the Royal College of Art in 1991 for exhibiting a blue heritage plaque proclaiming “Gavin Turk worked here, 1989–1991,” that gesture became a defining moment in his career, signalling his subversive approach to artistic value and institutional validation. Since then, Turk has been widely celebrated in both the UK and internationally, with major exhibitions at venues such as the White Cube Gallery, Tate Britain, and the New Art Centre, and participation in the Venice Biennale. In 2010 he received the Jack Goldhill Sculpture Prize from the Royal Academy of Arts, and his works are now held in significant public and private collections, including Tate and the British Museum.