Chris Ofili
Chris Ofili
Christopher "Chris" Ofiliis an English Turner Prize-winning painter who is best known for his paintings incorporating elephant dung. He was one of the Young British Artists. Since 2005, Ofili has been living and working in Trinidad, where he currently resides in Port of Spain. He also lives and works in London and Brooklyn...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPainter
Date of Birth10 October 1968
exhibitions process results
The studio is a laboratory, not a factory. An exhibition is the result of your experiments, but the process is never-ending. So an exhibition is not a conclusion.
hip-hop listening enemy
I was listening to a lot of hip hop, music like Public Enemy that was about raising consciousness, and I realised I could feed that directly into my work, using images in a way that was a bit like sampling - taking images from diverse places, exploring the contradictions without trying to hide the seams.
who-i-am magic mastermind
There's a magic that comes from playing entirely to who you are. I've got my specialist subject - in the Mastermind sense - and I wouldn't change it, or who I am.
perception
I'm aware that success can overwhelm you. The perception of you can be elevated to such a status that it's not you any more.
college want royal
When I left the Royal College, I decided I would only make paintings that I would want to look at myself, that felt close to my life.
doors creative trying
Sometimes, as I feel a door or an exit point in my work is closing, I'll try to create an opening so as not to stifle the creative process, which I see as a process that's never-ending.