Freeze (exhibition)

Freeze is the title of an art exhibition that took place in July 1988 in an empty London Port Authority building at Surrey Docks in London Docklands. Its main organiser was Damien Hirst. It was significant in the subsequent development of the Young British Artists.

Freeze was orchestrated by Damien Hirst, who was then a student at Goldsmiths College of Art. Hirst and his collaborators intentionally imitated the look of Charles Saatchi's first gallery in St John's Wood that had opened a few years earlier. Saatchi, an art collector, attended Freeze and purchased a piece of art by Mat Collishaw. Michael Craig-Martin, a tutor at Goldsmiths Art College, used his influence in the London art world to convince Norman Rosenthal and Nicholas Serota to visit the exhibition.

A show of work by Angus Fairhurst in February 1988 was the precursor to Freeze. Fairhurst, along with other students from Goldsmiths College of Art, were instrumental in organizing Freeze. It was there that the work of the Young British Artists caught the attention of the collector Charles Saatchi.

The catalogue for Freeze had surprisingly high production values for a student exhibition. It was designed by Tony Arefin and included an essay by art critic Ian Jeffrey. The catalogue was funded by the property developers Olympia and York. The title of the show came from the catalogue's description of Mat Collishaw's macro photograph Bullet Hole which showed a gunshot wound to a human head (taken from a pathology textbook).

In 2007, Michael Craig-Martin said in an interview with Brian Sherwin:

The exhibition was sponsored by the London Docklands Development Corporation and Olympia and York.

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