Oil on Canvas
100 x 66,5 in (253 x 169 cm)

London born painter and sculptor Marc Quinn is one of the United Kingdom's most important artists. He is predominantly a figural artist whose works often explore the mutability of the human body and the subject of mortality. Quinn graduated from Cambridge University in 1985 and became part of the YBA group (Young British Artists), a collection of conceptual artists including leading artists Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin. Quinn rose to prominence in the 1990's after his work "Self", a sculpture of his head made with nine pints of his own blood, was displayed in Charles Saatchi's collection of works by the YBA. Marc Quinn's wide-ranging oeuvre displays a preoccupation with the mutability of the body and the dualisms that define human life: spiritual and physical, surface and depth, cerebral and sexual. Quinn's sculpture, paintings and drawings often deal with the distanced relationship we have with our bodies, highlighting how the conflict between the 'natural' and 'cultural' has a grip on the contemporary psyche. Using an uncompromising array of materials, from ice and blood to glass, marble or lead, Quinn develops these paradoxes into experimental, conceptual works that are mostly figurative in form. Other key themes in his work include genetic modification and hybridism. Garden (2000), for instance, is a walk-through installation of impossibly beautiful flowers that will never decay, or his 'Eternal Spring' sculptures, featuring flowers preserved in perfect bloom by being plunged into sub-zero silicone. Quinn has also explored the potential artistic uses of DNA, making a portrait of a sitter by extracting strands of DNA and placing it in a test-tube. DNA Garden (2001), contains the DNA of over 75 plant species as well as 2 humans: a re-enactment of the Garden of Eden on a cellular level. Quinn's diverse and poetic work meditates on our attempts to understand or overcome the transience of human life through scientific knowledge and artistic expression. Quinn's art is preoccupied with the ideas of science and consumerism, particularly relevant in today's age of genetic manipulation. Marc Quinn has exhibited in many important group and solo exhibitions internationally including Sonsbeek '93, Arnhem (1993), Give and Take, Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2001), Statements 7, 50th Venice Biennale (2003) and Gwangju Biennale (2004). Solo exhibitions include Tate Gallery, London (1995), Kunstverein Hannover (1999), Fondazione Prada, Milan (2000), Tate Liverpool (2002), Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2004), Groninger Museum, Groningen (2006) and MACRO, Rome (2006), DHC/ART Foundation pour l'art contemporain, Montréal (2007) and Fondation Beyeler, Basel (2009).