Damien Hirst
The artist behind the shark in formaldehyde, and more than three decades of works made with real butterflies.

Damien Hirst has worked with butterflies since 1989. His Kaleidoscope paintings, begun in 2001, set thousands of butterfly wings into geometric patterns in household gloss paint, and his Mandalas were first shown together at White Cube Mason's Yard in London in 2019. His 1991 work The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living is the shark in formaldehyde.