Martin Creed (English, b.1968), is a sculptor and installation artist, known for incorporating everyday objects into his pieces. He has worked in a range of media, including painting, drawing, film, and music. He is often labeled a late Conceptualist, mixed with elements of Minimalism, but prefers to be called an Expressionist.

Creed was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, and raised in Glasgow. The artist studied painting at the Slade School of Fine Art in London from 1986 to 1990. He became disillusioned with painting, believing it be a limited means of expression, and stopped for a number of years, until 2005, when he debuted his highlighter pen drawings. Since then, he has produced numerous show featuring paintings and provocative installation works.

Creed is best known for his winning submission to the 2001 Turner Prize for Work No. 227: The Lights Going On and Off. The work consisted of an empty room in which the lights periodically switch on and off. As with this work, much of his oeuvre centers on process, responding to the immediate situation or environment. He pushes the envelope in a less subtle way in Work No. 610: Sick Film and Work No. 660: Shit Film, films in which a person walks into a stark white space and either vomits or defecates before walking away.

In addition to his career as an artist, Creed fronts a rock band, Owada, formed in 1994, which performs internationally and plays a part in some of his works. He has had solo exhibitions at the Tate Britain, the Centre Pompidou, and at his representative galleries, Hauser & Wirth and Gavin Brown’s enterprise. Creed has also exhibited in group shows at the Venice Biennale and The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY. The artist lives and works in London, UK, and Alicudi, Italy.