Damien Hirst (1965) is the most influential British contemporary artist of a generation.  Infamous YBA (Young British Artists) provocateur Damien Hirst is one of the most important figures in contemporary art, audacious and daring in the face of controversy. He has inspired, provoked and divided the public, collectors and critics. Contradicting themes of beauty and decay, infinity and mortality, has led to a wide body of works. Hirst’s artistic practice varies wildly—from dead animals submerged in formaldehyde, to pristine, ominous medicine cabinets, to the pharmaceutically poppy, menacingly hollow spot paintings—but his key themes are life’s mortality and modern science’s palliative, seductive allure. Rising from the British recession of the 1990s, his middle-class artistic persona melds the antagonism and shock of British punk rock with the showmanship and audacious capitalism of Andy Warhol.