The celebrated art of David Shrigley is a type of bizarrely irresistible craze level genius using cult-like + highly sarcastic humour to navigate his vision of everyday situations + the funny, sometimes misunderstood + often awkward human interactions. Seemingly inconsequential at the surface, his continuously fragmented narrative is satisfied with surreal bursts of deadpan hilarity + comes to life in the form of his now world-famous child-like texts + illustrations.
Born in Macclesfield, Cheshire in the United Kingdom in 1968, Shrigley studied at the Glasgow School of art in 1991 where he then lived + worked for 27 years before more recently moving to Brighton in 2015. He finds inspiration for his pieces through the medium of (overheard) conversation + snippets of text from just about anywhere. Crude + at times ‘out there’ in terms of his messages, Shrigley confesses to being a complete outsider in the art world. His art possesses a sense of dark humour, as though he’s a rather wisest young child observing the adult world through a deeply witty, sometimes dirty lens. It’s a kind of genius.
Although best known for his fascinating drawings, his work doesn’t finish there. Finding himself in a variety of other mediums including music, photography, large-scale installations, sculpture, painting + animation, he’s got a penchant for keeping things fun no matter the means of expression.
Shrigley’s art has been the subject of major solo shows around the world including exhibitions at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, the Kelvingrove Art Gallery + Museum in Glasgow, + the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles while his works are included in seriously prominent collections around the world including MoMa NY, tate, London, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany, Thyssen-Bornemisza Contemporary Art Foundation, Vienna, Austria + Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Scotland among others. He was nominated for the prestigious Turner Prize for his solo show David Shrigley: Brain Activity which came after a major mid-career retrospective at the Hayward Gallery in London in 2013. His pieces have been commissioned for massive public display, most notably his monumental sculptural creation, ‘Really Good' which was unveiled in Trafalgar Square, London for the Fourth Plinth Commission. Just this year, in January the artist was awarded the decoration of Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, also know an OBE.
Despite feeling on the periphery of his own industry, he’s most certainly know by the in crowd. You can dine in what is essentially a gallery of Shrigley’s exclusive creations which he made specifically for the popular restaurant in London, Sketch. Par for the course, excuse the pun, of course is it’s Instagramable pink interiors which play as the backdrop to his vision.
David Shrigley is the king of the most elegant type of rude + crude when it comes to his drawings; simultaneously smart-ass + smart. Deadpan humour has never been more fun or fabulous, chic or wonderful.
Find out more at davidshrigley.com
