Marcus Harvey

b.1963

Marcus Harvey was born in Leeds in 1963 and lives and works in London. Harvey graduated from Goldsmith’s College in the late 1980s along with the other members of the group now known as Young British Artists (YBAs). Harvey became well known after his infamous and controversial painting Myra was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1997 as part of the exhibition Sensation.

Marcus Harvey has participated in several important group exhibitions such as ‘Some Went Mad, Some Ran Away’, Serpentine Gallery, London(1994) and ‘Sensation’, Royal Academy, London (1997). Harvey’s solo exhibitions include White Cube, London (1994), Tanya Bonakdar, New York (1995), Mary Boone, Gallery, New York (2002, Galleria Marabini, Bologna (2005).

Most often focusing on painting and sculpture Maquette for Heroic Bust of Churchill is Harvey’s first experience of working in cast silver. He said of the work: “Using silver to cast a small table top sculpture breaks down the barriers of high and serious art. I don’t assign it a monetary presence but more the look of an object that has a function, maybe a coffee pot or a trophy. Something that has a life amongst Toby jugs, small African carvings and the little leaning towers of Pisa I found crowding my Grandparents mantle piece.”