Gilbert and George (British, 20th/21st C)

Gilbert & George have been collaborating since they met in 1967 at the St. Martin's School in London. As students they adopted the form of "living sculptures" by walking through the streets and parks of London covered from head to toe in metallic make-up. Later, they moved their performances to indoor exhibition spaces and began touring internationally. From the outset, Gilbert & George wanted to collapse the distance between art and the artist. Since "Living Sculptures", they have worked in a variety of media including books, film, and photo pieces, which they also consider "sculpture" and in doing so, have transcended the modernist tenets of performance and process art as well as conceptualism. Gilbert and George have exhibited widely throughout the world. Most recently representing Great Britain in the 2005 Venice Biennale. The Tate Modern, London will premiere their traveling retrospective in February 2007, which then goes onto the Haus der Kunst, Munich, the Castello de Rivoli, the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Brooklyn Art Museum. Other exhibitions include those at the Serpentine Gallery, London in 2002, The Factory at the School of Art, Athens and The Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon.