Goldsmiths, University Of London Notable Alumni

British fashion designer, Dame Vivienne Westwood, is credited for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream. She attended a course on jewelry at the University of Westminster but left before graduating. She worked as a teacher for a while before turning to fashion designing. She eventually opened four boutiques in London.

Grammy-winning English singer Damon Albarn has previously been part of two major bands, Blur and Gorillaz, as their lead vocalist and primary songwriter. He has also performed as part of the supergroup The Good, the Bad & the Queen. His solo album Everyday Robots was nominated for a Mercury Award.

Experimental musician John Cale is best known as the co-founder of the rock band The Velvet Underground. The son of a coal miner father, he later developed a love for music that earned him a scholarship to the University of London. Prescribed opiates for his bronchial issues, he later struggled with addiction.

Artist Damien Hirst first gained fame in the 1980s. A master of conceptual art, he creates everything from paintings and installations to sculptures and drawings, with topics ranging from mortality and beauty to rebirth and technology. One of his creations featured dead animals preserved in formaldehyde, while another featured rows of multicolored spots.

Amelia Warner is a British musician and composer. She is best known for her work as a composer in a movie titled Mary Shelley for which she was honored with the Breakthrough Composer of the Year award at the International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) Awards in 2018. A former actress, Warner has also appeared in films like Æon Flux.

Sculptor Antony Gormley is best known for his human forms, most of which he creates using his own naked form. The Turner Prize-winning artist had initially studied history and archaeology but later turned to art. His best-known works include Angel of the North and Three Ways: Mould, Hole and Passage.

The son of a British Army officer, comedian and musician Neil Innes had begun training in the piano and the guitar since childhood. Part of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah band, he wrote the hit single I’m the Urban Spaceman. He is also remembered for his collaboration with the Monty Python team.

Linton Kwesi Johnson is a Jamaican-born British-based activist and dub poet. He is best known for his poetry that deals with the experiences of an African-Caribbean in Britain. Linton Kwesi Johnson was honored with the PEN Pinter Prize in July 2020.  

Sarah Lucas is an English artist who was one of the most important members of the popular visual artists' group, Young British Artists. She is best known for incorporating found objects, collage, and photography in her works to employ bawdy humor and visual puns. Her works often highlight the absurdity of society and question conventions.

British equestrian William Fox-Pitt was the first from his country to become world number one. Both his parents were riders at Badminton and Burghley, and thus he was destined to follow in their footsteps. He began eventing at age 15. His accomplishments include two Olympics team silvers.

Born to an Irish mother and a Nigerian father, Dublin-born Emma Dabiri spent her initial years in the US before returning to Ireland. A teaching fellow at the SOAS, she is also the bestselling author of Don't Touch My Hair and other books that depict the reality of racism.

Gary Hume is an English artist best known for his association with Young British Artists. A popular artist, Gary Hume represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale in 1999. In the exhibition, Hume showcased his famous Water series. In 1997, he was honored with Great Britain's prestigious Jerwood Painting Prize.

Angus Fairhurst was an English artist best remembered for his work in photography, installation, and video. One of the most important members of a group of visual artists named Young British Artists, Angus Fairhurst played a major role in the development of the group. He exhibited his works nationally and internationally and at popular institutions like the Walker Art Center.

Known as an innovative cartoonist, H.M. Bateman soared to fame with his The Man Who... series of cartoons, which were a regular in the British weekly Punch. His humorous depictions of social gaffes, portrayed through mostly wordless strips, were also published in The Bystander, The Humorist, and The Tatler.

Although British sculptor Rebecca Warren is chiefly known for her works in clay, steel and bronze, she is equally at home with variety of other materials, creating collages and wall mounted vitrines with neon, wool, pompoms, paper, thread etc. Currently a member of the Royal Academy of Arts, she has been holding solo exhibitions across Europe and USA since 2003.