Damien Hirst

This sculpture at the Royal Academy by Damien Hirst, b. 1965, perhaps the best known of YBAs (Young British Artists)(7/6/06). Death is a central theme in his work. He is best known for his Natural History series, in which dead animals (such as a shark, a sheep or a cow) are preserved, sometimes cut-up, in formaldehyde. His iconic work is The Physical Impossibility Of Death In the Mind Of Someone Living, an 18ft tiger shark in formaldehyde in a vitrine.