Gary Hume

Gary Hume, born in Kent, England, is a contemporary painter and is considered to be a part of the Young British Artists (YBA) movement. This movement, also known as the Brit artists or Britart movement, and consists of a wide variety of artists, many of whom graduated with Gary Hume in 1988 from Goldsmiths College. He is best known for his choice of medium, using high gloss, industrial grade paints in his works and for the every day objects he paints with them. During the 90's, Gary Hume's medium and focus shifted and he began to use high gloss, household paints instead of industrial paints and also started to use sheets of aluminum for canvases. Some of Hume's first major exhibitions included Freeze (1988), hosted by fellow Goldsmiths alum Damien Hirst, and East Country Yard in 1990. Finding meaning in the redundant, in the ordinary, in our normal, every day lives is where Gary Hume seems to have found his niche. During an interview in June, 2013 Hume describes his choice to use high gloss, high quality paints such unexciting subject matter, saying, "[everyday objects] are ordinary and I like to take things that are mundane and make them beautiful."