Mat Collishaw

Mat Collishaw of the Young British Artists (YBA) uses a visual language that embraces a diverse array of media (though mainly photography and video) to capture imagery that is at once shocking and strangely beautiful. Indeed, his work examines both the beguiling and seductive nature of pictures, often in a politically charged or controversial manner. Collishaw’s well-known 1988 work Bullet Hole, for instance, is comprised of 15 light boxes that together depict a zoomed-in image of what looks to be a bullet wound in someone’s head. (In fact, Collishaw appropriated the image from a pathology textbook showing a wound from an ice pick.) Bullet Hole was exhibited at Damien Hirst’s famed YBA exhibition “Freeze” in 1988, which propelled the group into the spotlight of the art world.

Collishaw has shown his work extensively in solo shows all over Europe and the United States. In 1989, he received a BFA from Goldsmith College, and today, Collishaw continues to live and work in London.