Gagosian Gallery Challenges Travelers to "Spot" Damien Hirst

Spotted: a travel challenge. Earlier this month, the contemporary Gagosian Gallery launched a worldwide exhibition of mega-artist Damien Hirst's colorful spot paintings. Over 300 paintings will be on display throughout Larry Gagosian's eleven international galleries, and travelers who gallery hop to every show before the exhibition ends will receive a signed spot print with a personal dedication from Hirst.

Hirst is perhaps most famous for displaying a 14-foot tiger shark in a formaldehyde tank and bedazzling a skull with diamonds. But he started creating his signature spot paintings in 1986, and has continued their production with the help of assistants through 2011. Each white canvas features an assortment of colorful dots, precisely placed and coordinated so that no color appears twice on the same painting.

A handful of travelers have already completed the "Spot Challenge", but you can catch up by registering online, picking up your participant card at any Gagosian Gallery, and jetting off to New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Rome, Hong Kong, and beyond. You don't have long, either: Dates vary by gallery, but the latest closing is March 17, in Geneva.

Photo credit: (left) "Famotidine', 2004 - 2011 (right) "Levorphanol", 1995 ©Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2011. Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates