Gary Hume graduated from Goldsmiths College in 1988, and is part of a generation of artists who have become internationally recognized since their participation in Damien Hirst's 'Freeze' exhibition in London's Docklands. Hume's work can be divided into two phases: the Door series, influenced by Conceptual-based art practices of the '60's and 70's, and the subsequent Pop-inspired paintings. Until 1993 Hume worked on a suite of paintings resembling hospital swing doors" pairs of rectangles with circular and square windows. These paintings were executed in high gloss enamel on canvas or aluminium panels. They are schematic explorations of transitional space" connections between spaces, but not places in themselves. Their highly lacquered surfaces are reflective, putting the viewer both inside and outside the institutional doors.

With This Is Not Possible (1993), and abstracted figuration of the Madonna and Child, Hume gave up the rigorous formalism of his earlier work, freeing himself to make ambitious yet sumptuously decorative paintings. Hume's images are culled from magazines and books, and are rendered in vibrant enamel paint on large aluminium panels. They incorporate everything from 'cut out' figures of pop icons Kate Moss and Patsy Kensit, to flowers and biomorphic blobs. In Begging For It (1994) a pale blue figure is silhouetted against an avocado-green background, with jet-black arms and clasped hands reaching up, beseeching someone for something.

Gary Hume has exhibited widely in Britain and abroad, notably with White Cube in London and Matthew Marks in New York. In 1996 he was the British representative at Sao Paulo Biennale, and was nominated for the Turner Prize. He has also had one-person exhibitions at Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht and the ICA in London.