Unlike most major art movements, the Young British Artists (YBA), also referred to as Britart, started with a definitive event—a 1988 student exhibition entitled "Freeze." Organized by Damien Hirst, the show took place in an empty London Port Authority building and showcased work from BFA students at Goldsmiths College of Art. The monumental exhibition caught the eye of famed British galleriest and collector, Charles Saatchi, who became a patron and champion of several YBA artists, primarily Hirst. Critic Michael Corris first used the term “young British artists” in the May 1992 issue of Artforum magazine to describe the group of up-and coming artists whose entrepreneurial energy defined a new generation of creation.

The loosely defined group of artists, many of whom are Goldsmiths graduates, includes Hirst, Sarah Lucas, Tracey Emin, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Jenny Saville, Marc Quinn, and Tacita Dean. While there is no definitive “style” associated with the YBA movement, found objects, subversive imagery and unusual material processes are common among work from this period. Hirst’s The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, a tiger shark submerged in formaldehyde vitrine, and Lucas’ Au Naturel, an arrangement of everyday objects that stand in for genitalia, are iconic examples of the YBA’s wild and experimental work. Inspired by the guerilla energy of Freeze, many YBA artists also created alternative spaces for their work, such as Hirst’s 1998 Pharmacy restaurant and Lucas’ North London collaboration with Emin, The Shop. Through an influx of raucous punk energy, the YBA movement revolutionized the British art scene in the 1990s, making way for a host of successful young artists and galleries showing scandalous, groundbreaking new work.