Martin Creed was born in Wakefield, England, in 1968, and from 1986-90 attended the Slade School of Art in London. In 1993 his Work No. 81, 'a one inch cube of masking tape in the middle of every wall in a building' was installed in the offices of the London firm, Starkmann Ltd, and since then Creed has had eighteen solo exhibitions or projects in Europe and North America and has participated in numerous group exhibitions world wide. He lives and works in London.




http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/turnerprize/2001/Creed.htm

Creed's art is characterised by a gentle but subversive wit and by a minimalism rooted in an instinctive anti-materialism. His often extremely self-effacing works, all titled by number, such as Work No.79 1993, 'some Blu-Tack kneaded, rolled into a ball and depressed against a wall', or Work No. 88 'a sheet of A4 paper crumpled into a ball', or Work No. 81, have been characterised as 'attempts to short-circuit the visually overloaded, choice saturated culture in which we live'. They also take their place in the honourable tradition within the avant-garde of making work which appears to have no material value - which resists or defies commodification, even if in vain. Hence his conscious use of mundane and modest materials. His work however is always arresting and can be visually spectacular, as for example his neon works, or what is probably his most celebrated piece, Work No.200 1998, 'half the air in a given space'. Widely exhibited, this consists of a sufficient number of twelve inch white balloons filled with air to half-fill the gallery space. He has made variants with black , red and multi-coloured balloons.


http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/turnerprize/2001/Creed.htm
http://www.martincreed.com/works/index.html
http://www.designboom.com/portrait/creed.html

HR Giger is recognized as one of the world´s foremost artists of Fantastic Realism.

Born in 1940 to a chemist´s family in Chur, Switzerland, he moved in 1962 to Zurich, where he studied architecture and industrial design at the School of Applied Arts.

By 1964 he was producing his first artworks, mostly ink drawings and oil paintings, resulting in his first solo exhibition in 1966, followed by the publication and world-wide distribution of his first poster edition in 1969. Shortly after, he discovered the airbrush and, along with it, his own unique freehand painting style, leading to the creation of many of his most well known works, the surrealistic Biomechanical dreamscapes, which formed the cornerstone of his fame. To date, 20 books have been published about Giger´s art.