Born in Wallingford, Connecticut, Robert Gober became an installation artist whose use of human hair, especially pubic hair, was shocking to some viewers. His work, quite often depicting body parts, is confrontational, mixing the commonplace with the symbolic and the surreal such as a candle sticking out of a human leg. He is also known for extremely banal subjects such as storm drains stripped of their functions and featured as isolated objects for contemplation and meditation.

He attended the Tyler School of Art in Rome from 1973 to 1974 and earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree from Middlebury College in Vermont in 1976. He has exhibited widely including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Venice Biennial in 1989, and ...