A life in art: Steve McQueen

Steve McQueen is a British artist working primarily in film. Earlier this year he won the Caméra d'Or at Cannes for his debut feature, Hunger. He was awarded the Turner prize in 1999 Photograph: Felix Clay/Guardian

Still from Steve McQueen's new exhibition of work at Baltic, entitled Running Thunder, 2007. 16mm film, 11.41 mins, continuous projection Photograph: Courtesy Thomas Dane Gallery, London and Marian Goodman, New York, Paris/Copyright the artist

Still from Steve McQueen's film, Hunger, which won critical acclaim at Cannes this year. The film focuses on the death of Bobby Sands, after 66 days without food, in the Maze prison protests of 1981 Photograph: PR

The Guardian's film critic, Peter Bradshaw, wrote: 'Hunger is extreme cinema for an extreme subject. It is outstandingly made.' McQueen and Enda Walsh, with whom the artist co-wrote the script, interviewed a number of people affected by the events of 1981, including former prisoners, a priest and a prison officer - an experience that McQueen described as 'overwhelming' Photograph: PR

McQueen was an official war artist in Iraq in 2003, embedded with troops in Basra. His work, Queen and Country, shown here at the Imperial War Museum, London, depicts British soldiers who lost their lives in Iraq, commemorated on postage stamps Photograph: David Parry/PA

Another view of Queen and Country, featuring sheets of stamps bearing the portraits of soldiers who were killed in the Iraq conflict, at Manchester Central Library in February 2007. The proposal to put the stamps into circulation was put to Royal Mail by the Imperial War Museum in 2005, but the campaign was met with resistance and stalled. McQueen regards the work as incomplete until the stamps are in circulation Photograph: Christopher Thomond/Guardian

A still from McQueen's 2002 film Western Deep, which follows miners into the claustrophobic depths of the Tautona gold mines in Johannesburg. The Guardian's art critic Adrian Searle wrote: 'McQueen's films remind you of your own presence, in a particular space, engaging with the particularities of what is happening in the here and now of the cinematic experience' Photograph: PR

A still from McQueen's Deadpan, one of the works in the 1999 Turner prize show. McQueen's work included a recreation of Buster Keaton's famous stunt in Steamboat Bill Jr, in which he is left unscathed by a house that collapses around him Photograph: Graham Turner/Guardian

Installation view from McQueen's 1999 Turner prize show. The Guardian's art critic Jonathan Jones called Deadpan a 'modern masterpiece' that has 'gained in authority over the years' Photograph: Graham Turner/Guardian

Video installation entitled Drumroll (1998) - New York City filmed from the inside of a rolling barrel - part of McQueen's Turner prize show Photograph: © Steve McQueen

McQueen at the Cannes film festival earlier this year. The artist has been chosen to represent Britain at the 2009 Venice Biennale, following in the footsteps of Tracey Emin Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP