Marc Quinn is a foremost British artist who came to prominence in the early 1990s with ‘Self’, a sculpture of his head, cast out of his blood and kept intact by freezing it in its own refrigerator display unit. It is described as being a deeply authentic self-portrait and an expression of our exasperating human dependencies. ‘Self’, in many ways epitomizes Quinn’s early work that was concerned with issues of decay and preservation.

In the 2000’s however, Quinn began to focus on manipulating classical, heavyweight materials such as bronze, concrete and marble. Alison Lapper Pregnant (2005), a monumental marble statue of pregnant Alison Lapper exhibited at London’s Trafalgar Square, was inspired by iconic ancient statues that after centuries had lost limbs but were still, if not more, highly regarded than when they were first created a millennia ago. With Alison Lapper as his muse, Quinn depicts a disabled woman in an equally, reverential manner.