© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2025. Image credit: Tate
The Young British Artists, or YBAs, is used to describe a loose group of artists associated with enlivening British art in the 1990s. Exhibiting together from the late 1980s, the group rose to prominence in the '90s with their often shocking work that experimented with materials, and their entrepreneurial spirit. Many of the YBAs graduated from Goldsmiths College of Art, also exhibiting in the 1988 'Freeze' exhibition curated by then student Damien Hirst – one of the group's main protagonists.
Other prominent members include Sarah Lucas, Tracey Emin, Michael Landy, and Gary Hume.
