Hirst first came to public attention in London in 1988 when he conceived and curated the group exhibition Freeze during his second year at Goldsmiths, the University of London art school. He quickly became a major figure in the international art world in 1991 with his work The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, a fourteen-foot-long tiger shark preserved in a tank of formaldehyde. Hirst has remained a significant presence on the contemporary art scene, influencing generations of artists. His willingness to tackle challenging and thought-provoking themes has pushed the boundaries of what art can be. Hirst’s provocative art has been widely collected and exhibited around the world. In 1995, he won Tate Britain’s Turner Prize, Great Britain’s premier award for contemporary art.