Steve McQueen (b. 1969, London) started his career with short, experimental, innovative video and film installations. In 1999, he received the prestigious Turner Prize. In recent years, he also directed various feature-length films, including 12 Years a Slave, for which he received an Academy Award. McQueen’s visual work is characterized by long, continuous shots; is dramatized by the threat of physical violence, and uses the screen as a confrontational mirror facing the spectator. Unusually McQueen exhibits sculptural works as well, in which he experiments with a wide range of materials such as neon light, gold, silver and granite.