Who were the Young British Artists?

Many YBAs were graduates of Goldsmiths, where teachers like artist Michael Craig-Martin encouraged a conceptual and ironic approach to art. The movement kicked off here in 1988 where 16 students exhibited in Freeze, the now legendary exhibition held in a derelict warehouse in the nearby Docklands. It was set up by second year undergraduate Damien Hirst.

A leading YBA figure – and prolific provocateur. Hirst continued to organise exhibitions after Freeze, attracting the attention and years-long support of collector Charles Saatchi. Best known for suspending dead (and sometimes dissected) animals in tanks of the preservative formaldehyde, he became one of the wealthiest and most successful artists of that generation.

London-born Sarah Lucas had recently graduated from Goldsmiths when her work was exhibited in Freeze. Across media like sculpture and photography, she explores themes such as gender, class, sex and death with critical, racy humour.

Tracey Emin became associated with the YBAs in the 1990s. One of her earliest projects was a shop she ran with Lucas in east London to market their work. She became one of Britain’s most famous artists. Her work is both personal and provocative, best captured in her artwork My Bed.

Another original YBA, Michael Landy examines British society, politics and consumerism through sculpture, drawing and installation. In 2001, he destroyed everything he owned as a piece of performance art called Break Down. He became a member of the art establishment in London’s Royal Academy of Arts alongside YBAs Emin and Gary Hulme.

Manchester-born Chris Ofili is known for vivid, multilayered paintings. He rose to fame in 1997 when he exhibited in the Royal Academy of Art’s Sensation exhibition alongside other YBAs like Emin and Marc Quinn. A year later, aged 30, he became the first Black artist to win the prestigious Turner Prize.

Gillian Wearing studied at both Chelsea College of Art and Goldsmiths, graduating from the latter in 1990. Much of this Turner Prize-winning artist’s work explores the tension between our private and public lives. Her statue of suffragist Millicent Fawcett stands in Westminster’s Parliament Square.

Goldsmith graduate Fiona Banner works across sculpture, installation, text and drawing, often under the name The Vanity Press. She became well known in the 1990s for her ‘wordscapes’, hand-written and printed transcriptions of entire films or historical events in her own words.

Think of the YBA’s shock factor, and Marcus Harvey is probably one of the first artists that springs to mind. In 1997, the Goldsmith graduate’s painting of child murderer Myra Hindley, made of children’s handprints, was displayed in the Sensation exhibition. The painting was vandalised twice and provoked huge public outcry.