When it comes to the world of Matthew Barney, nothing is too weird or extravagant.

There is also no media that this man won’t touch. He does it all: sculpture to drawing to video and beyond. And he does it all with a certain je ne sais quois that is nothing less than bizarre.

Barney's debut body of work, Cremaster Cycle, announced his entry to the art world with quite a bang. His creepy beings and sexual references left everyone a little taken back, but infatuated nonetheless. His work since has not strayed far from this path. He makes the OG surrealists look straight edge. It is no easy feat to top Dali’s melting clocks or Magritte’s faceless reflections, but Barney takes the cake for dreaming up the most oddball otherworldly creatures. 

You probably wouldn’t guess given his infatuation with exploring the fluidity of male sexuality, but he was actually recruited by Yale to play the macho sport of football in college. While there, he was also a pre-med student in the hopes of becoming a plastic surgeon, which does in turn seem fitting considering the role altered human anatomy has played in his art.

His mother, an abstract painter, would often bring him to New York as a child to learn about art. Infatuated with the city from a young age, Barney moved to the big apple after college to peruse his dream of being an artist and ditched his plans to become a surgeon. To support himself in the early years, he worked as a model for J. Crew and Ralph Lauren. It is funny to image such an eclectic guy working for such preppy companies but whatever it takes to get by I guess.

While Barney is memorable in his own right, he is also well-known for his long-term relationship with Icelandic singer Björk. Given their unique eccentricities; it comes as no surprise that these two made quite the fascinating couple for many years.