(1959 - )
Mark Wallinger was born in Chigwell in Essex. He studied at Chelsea School of Art, from 1978 to 1981, and then at Goldsmiths College from 1983 to 1985. During the 1990s, the subject of sport and, in particular, horse racing, was the source for a number of his works. His successful shows at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham and the Serpentine in London contributed towards his selection for the Turner Prize in 1995, which was won by Damien Hirst. His works were also included in the controversial, but seminal, exhibition Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection, which was held at the Royal Academy in London in 1997. His Ecce Homo, a life-size statue of Christ, was displayed on the ‘empty plinth’ in London’s Trafalgar Square over the turn of the millennium. In 2001 Wallinger represented Britain at the Venice Biennale exhibition of international contemporary art. In 2007 he was awarded the Turner Prize. In 2009 he won the Angel of the South competition and his work, a giant white horse, was installed in the landscape at Ebbsfleet in north Kent in 2012.
