A gay student who sparked outrage after announcing he would lose his virginity in front of a crowd of 100 people in the name of art, has chosen a central London venue for the controversial 'exhibit'.

Clayton Pettet, 19, said he will have sex for the first time at the Orange Dot gallery in Bloomsbury for a project entitled 'Art School Stole My Virginity'.

He said he hopes his 'performance art project' - followed by a question and answer session -  will challenge the idea of sexuality.

Clayton, who has been planning the event for three years, said he and an anonymous partner will have protected sex and then ask the audience what they thought of the performance.

He wrote on his tumblr page: 'When all my peers at school were losing their virginity it was incredibly hard for me to ask why I was still a virgin and why it meant so much to the people all around me.

'My piece isn't a statement as much as it is a question. The whole aspect of virginity was incredibly emotional for me and has been ever since.'

Clayton has not told his parents about the project, but has informed his tutors at Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design.

Speaking about the event last year, he said: 'The key thing about performance art is that it should only be performed once, and this is the ultimate once-in-a-lifetime performance.

'I've held on to my virginity for 19 years, and I'm not throwing it away lightly.

'Basically it's like I am losing the stigma around virginity.

'I want the audience to see if anything has changed between me and my partner.

'Since culturally we do hold quite a lot of value to the idea of virginity I have decided to use mine and the loss of it to create a piece that I think will stimulate interesting debate and questions regarding the subject.'