19 Facts About Gavin Turk

Gavin Turk was born on 1967 and is a British artist from Guildford in Surrey, and was considered to be one of the Young British Artists.

Gavin Turk studied at Chelsea School of Art from 1986 to 1989, and at the Royal College of Art from 1989 to 1991.

Gavin Turk attended the private view of the Sensation exhibition at the Royal Academy, dressed as a down-and-out.

Gavin Turk has subsequently produced an extensive body of work, which purports to question the value and integrity of a hermetic artistic identity.

Gavin Turk was considered to be one of the group of artists known as the Young British Artists.

Gavin Turk's wide ranging practice often incorporates iconic images of figures taken from popular culture and art historical sources.

Gavin Turk's most famous work in this series, Pop, is a waxwork of Gavin Turk as Sid Vicious.

Gavin Turk has appropriated recognisable elements from artists such as Jacques-Louis David, Yves Klein, Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, Rene Magritte, Alighiero Boetti, Robert Morris, Jasper Johns and The Death of Marat painting by Jacques-Louis David.

From 2005 Gavin Turk began producing a small number of silkscreen works on canvas, depicting himself as Elvis Presley, in a pose taken from the paintings by Andy Warhol of the same subject from the 1960s, such as Warhol's Triple Elvis.

Gavin Turk applied diamond dust to some of the Elvis works made from diamante applied to silkscreened canvas in vibrant pop colours, which sparkles in direct light.

Gavin Turk is perhaps the leading exponent of the painted bronze, and has cast objects from spent matches to worn paving slabs to discarded vehicle exhaust pipes.

In December 2009, Gavin Turk took part in the "Bricks" exhibition at Area 10 in Peckham in Southeast London.

Revolting Brick was number eight in a series of ten that Gavin Turk had created and signed.

In 2017 Gavin Turk placed an unofficial blue plaque commemorating Damien Hirst at Newport Street Gallery in London.

Additionally, Gavin Turk has had solo exhibitions at Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, the New Art Centre Sculpture Park and Gallery, Salisbury, England, the New Art Gallery in Walsall, England, and "The Stuff Show" at South London Gallery.

In November 2018, Gavin Turk was one of 82 people arrested during a coordinated occupation of five bridges in Central London.

In 2007 Gavin Turk established, with his partner Deborah Curtis, The House of Fairy Tales, a children's arts charity based in London, that brings together hundreds of artists, performers, actors, writers and philosophers to deliver theatrical events, guides and exhibitions.

In 2001, Gavin Turk was awarded the Jack Goldhill Sculpture Prize for his work Bag by the Royal Academy of Arts, London, who in 2007 awarded him the Charles Wollaston award for his work Dumb Candle, a carving of a candle made from the top of an old broom handle.

Gavin Turk was awarded an honorary doctorate in Arts, University of East London in 2010.