Chris Ofili
Born: 1968
Hometown: Manchester, England
Lives and Works: Trinidad
Education:
MA, Fine Art, Royal College of Art, London, England, 1993
BA, Fine Art, Chelsea School of Art, London, England, 1991
Tameside College of Technology (Foundation Course), 1988
About The Artist
A leading member of the YBA (Young British Artists) group that gained notoriety in the late 1990s through their use of provocative forms and diverse materials, Ofili creates paintings and collages which tackle themes around sexual and racial stereotypes, love, gender, and mortality.
His paintings often incorporate collage and three-dimensional elements and are monumental in scale. One of his paintings, The Holy Virgin Mary, which combined an image of the Virgin with porn clippings and elephant dung, generated widespread controversy and a rebuke from then-New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. At the time, the work was showing at the Sensation exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. Giuliani's attempt to punish the Brooklyn Museum by withholding city funds ultimately failed but not before generating widespread media attention and global visibility for Ofili and the other artists represented.
Galleries
David Zwirner, New York, NY
Victoria Miro Gallery, London, England
Select Permanent Collections
The British Museum, London, England
Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt, Germany
Goetz Collection, Munich, Germany
Joslyn Museum of Art, Omaha, NE
Judith Rothschild Collection, New York, NY
Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Tate Gallery, London, England
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England
Works by the Artist
