Michael Landy

Michael Landy
Landy at South London Gallery in 2010
Born	1963 (age 53–54) London
Nationality	British
Education	Goldsmiths, 1985–88
Known for	Conceptual Art, Installation Art
Notable work	Break Down, Art Bin
Movement	Young British Artists

Michael Landy RA (born 1963) is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs). He is best known for the performance piece installation Break Down (2001), in which he destroyed all his possessions, and for the Art Bin project at the South London Gallery. On 29 May 2008, Landy was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Landy was born in London. He first studied art in Loughton and Loughborough, then at Goldsmiths College in London, having been inspired to take up art professionally after having a picture selected for display on the BBC television art program Take Hart.

After graduating from Goldsmiths in 1988, he exhibited in the Freeze exhibition, organised by Damien Hirst — an exhibition which first brought together a group of artists that would later become known as the Young British Artists.

In 1990, Landy exhibited in East Country Yard with several of the artists from Freeze. His first solo exhibition was Market (1990), an installation comprising numerous empty market stalls. Like much of his later work it was intended as a comment on consumerism and society.

In 1992, Landy started an association with Karsten Schubert by making Closing Down Sale for his gallery, an installation made up of a number of objects in shopping trolleys labelled "BARGAIN" and recorded announcements encouraging visitors to buy. The work was intended as a comment on the commodification of art, and might be seen as a precursor of sorts to Break Down, a work which produced no saleable objects, except an edition of inventories (books) listing all destroyed items.

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