Chris Ofili

Each of the YBAs has had their own way to gain notoriety: Hirst did the shark, Emin the bed, and Quinn the blood-head. Chris Ofili did it by using elephant dung in his paintings. Not so controversial you might think, but New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani certainly didn't think so when he banned the exhibiting of Ofili's 'The Holy Virgin Mary' when it came to the city as part of the Sensation tour.

The painting featured a black Mary surrounded by pornographic close-ups of female genitalia, images from blaxploitation flix, and the ubiquitous elephant dung. On the back of this little scandal, Ofili was ranked number 86 in Bernard Goldberg's book 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America.

But unlike some of his contemporaries, Ofili is not just a shock-merchant. His work is considered and intelligent: it draws on the influence of early cave paintings and the artist's own Nigerian heritage along with more contemporary imagery. Highly politicized and culturally alert, Ofili might not be the big name, but he's one of the biggest artists around today.

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