A major American artist since the mid-'80s, Gober is best known for his surrealist sculptures of sinks and disembodied legs jutting out of walls.

Connecticut native and Middlebury grad Gober moved to Manhattan in the mid-'70s to become a painter; His first solo show in 1984 at the Paula Cooper Gallery consisted of slides of a painting in various states of completion. Gober soon turned his attention to sculpture, making a splash with a series of pieces based on sinks. Other notable works followed, including a playpen in the shape of an "X" and a series of wax body parts positioned as if the bodies they belonged to were trapped in a wall. While his sculptures are usually made of quotidian objects, they're nonetheless frequently creepy and occasionally controversial. For a 1997 show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Gober depicted the Virgin Mary standing above a sewer drain with sewage passing through her torso; outrage predictably ensued. After 11 years without a gallery show—a period during he was not totally inactive, as he represented the United States at the 2001 Venice Biennale—Gober reemerged, displaying new work (including a series of drawings of people having sex on newspapers from September 12th, 2001) and breaking his previous sales records. [Image via Getty]