Marcus Harvey was born in Moortown, Leeds in 1963 and lives and works in London. He graduated from Goldsmith’s College in the late 1980’s along with the other members of the group now known as Young British Artists (YBAs). Marcus became well known after his infamous and controversial painting ‘Myra’ was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1997 as part of the exhibition Sensation.
Marcus Harvey joined with fellow painter Peter Ashton Jones to form Turps Banana Magazine in 2005. Turps focuses on new writing about both art historical and contemporary painting, written entirely by contemporary practicing painters. This beautifully produced magazine is published twice a year, with a commitment to no advertising. The cover design is in yellow, with the word “TURPS” and the iconic banana of Andy Warhol. In 2012, Turps Art School was founded to allow emerging and mid career painters to spend a year painting intensively with other practicing painters. It has been heralded as an alternative model for arts education. Jonathan Jones for The Guardian in 2014 said “The renegade art school proving that painting is not dead.”