Gavin Turk

YBA Gavin Turk achieved his first taste of notoriety when in 1991 his tutors at the Royal College of Art refused to give him his final degree. The work he had submitted, Cave, was simply a white room containing only a blue heritage plaque proclaiming Turk's own presence. It was snapped up by Charles Saatchi.

This early work encapsulates the themes that pervaded Turk's work throughout his career, namely the relationship between himself and the iconic. He has produced life-sized sculptures of himself as Jean-Paul Marat, Che Guevara, and Sid Vicious (the last echoing Warhol's painting of Elvis Presley).

Not as notorious as Hirst or Emin, Turk has nonetheless attracted some brutal criticism - none more severe than critic Jonathan Jones' description of Turk's Che Guevara works as "an aimless inarticulate shambles" and, even better, as "a work of transcendent stupidity".

Web

• Wikipedia