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Myra by Marcus Harvey 1995

Marcus Harvey (born 1963 in Leeds) is an English artist and painter, and one of the Young British Artists (YBAs).

Marcus Harvey grew up in Moortown Leeds. He graduated from Goldsmiths College in 1986, and is also an alumnus of the Leeds College of Art. At that time he became a close friend of Damien Hirst. Other close friends of the two were Paul Fryer and Hugh and Stuart Allen. Hirst and Harvey encouraged Hugh Allen to begin to paint and study Art formally at the Leeds College of Art. Hugh Allen has worked closely with Hirst ever since, and was his first assistant. The trio were to be found in adjacent studios at the time that Hirst and Allen produced the first outings of Hirst's formaldahyde works. Hirst and Allen were to be found in diving suits and face masks wading about in neoprene tanks of formaladhyde with industrial sized hyperdermic needles whilst Harvey was next door with a brush and canvas.

Harvey did not take part in the Freeze show as he had graduated from Goldsmiths earlier, but Hirst included him when he curated Some Went Mad, Some Ran Away (1994). Harvey's painterly quasi-pornographic paintings attracted the attention of Charles Saatchi.

He is best known for his large work depicting Moors murderer Myra Hindley, formed from white, grey and black stencilled handprints of children. This work was the centre of major controversy when it was installed at the 1997 Sensation exhibition. The parents of the children murdered by Hindley and Ian Brady were particularly incensed. The painting was splattered with ink and eggs and finally had to be put behind acrylic glass.

• Marcus Harvey on the Saatchi Gallery web site