David Shrigley plays with humour and honesty, working primarily with drawing, as well as sculpture, installation and animation. Through his now iconic style which combines text and figurative imagery, the works are chaotic and colourful. Their appearance reveals a rigorous practice through which the banality of everyday life is explored, as David Shrigley looks at our fears and hopes, our insecurities, emotional traumas, ups and downs, and the other things that make up our mundane realities. Both poignant and sarcastic, his works succinctly remind us of what brings us all together and what makes us all human.
David Shrigley (b. 1968, UK) has received international and critical acclaim for his work. He has had recent solo exhibitions at Spiritmuseum (Stockholm), Deste Foundation Project Space (Hydra), Power Station of Art & Design (Shanghai), a public exhibition with the Public Art Fund in Central Park (New York), Pinakothek der Moderne (Munich), Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts (San Francisco), Rose Art Museum (Massachusetts), the National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne, Turku Art Museum (Turku), and Museum Ludwig (Cologne) among many others.
In 2016, David Shrigley’s seven meter tall “thumbs up” sculpture was unveiled in Trafalgar Square, for the Fourth Plinth Commission. Since 2014, he has had an on-going and changing presentation at Sketch Restaurant in London. Shrigley was nominated for the prestigious Turner Prize Award in 2013, following his major mid-career retrospective at the Hayward Gallery (London). In 2018 Shrigley was appointed as the Guest Director of the Brighton Festival. Shrigley’s works are found in prominent collections around the world, including Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago), Collection Lambert (Avignon), MUDAM (Luxembourg), Museum of Modern Art (New York), Tate Britain (London), the British Council (London), Thyssen-Bornemisza Contemporary Art Foundation (Vienna), Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Edinburgh) and the National Gallery of Denmark (Copenhagen).