David Shrigley

David John Shrigley OBE (born 17 September 1968) is a British visual artist. He lived and worked in Glasgow, Scotland for 27 years before moving to Brighton, England in 2015.[1][2][3]

David Shrigley
Shrigley in 2011
Born (1968-09-17) 17 September 1968
Macclesfield, Cheshire, England
NationalityBritish
EducationLeicester Polytechnic
Glasgow School of Art
Known forDrawing, photography, painting, sculpture, animation, music
AwardsHonorary doctorate, De Montfort University; Turner Prize nominee
Websitewww.davidshrigley.com

Early life and education

Shrigley was born 17 September 1968 in Macclesfield, Cheshire.[4][5] He moved with his parents and sister to Oadby, Leicestershire when he was two years old.[6][7] He took the Art and Design Foundation course at Leicester Polytechnic in 1987,[8][9] and then studied environmental art[6] at Glasgow School of Art from 1988 to 1991.[10][11] Talking about his final degree show, Shrigley later told The Guardian's Becky Barnicoat, "I thought my degree show was brilliant, but the people who were marking it didn't. I got a 2:2. They didn't appreciate my genius.[…] I didn't sell anything at the show – it was 1991, before the YBAs. There wasn't a precedent for people selling work that wasn't figurative painting".[12] Before becoming a full-time artist, Shrigley worked as a gallery guide at the CCA in Glasgow.[13]

Work
'Really Good' at Trafalgar Square's fourth plinth

As well as authoring several books, he directed the video for Blur's "Good Song" and also for Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's "Agnes, Queen of Sorrow".[14][15] In 2005 he designed a London Underground leaflet cover. Since 2005, he has contributed a cartoon for The Guardian's Weekend magazine every Saturday.[16] Other projects have included the album Worried Noodles (Tom Lab, 2007) where musicians interpret his writings as lyrics, including collaborations by David Byrne, Hot Chip, and Franz Ferdinand.

Shrigley co-directed a short film with director Chris Shepherd called Who I Am And What I Want (2005), based on Shrigley's book of the same title, with Kevin Eldon voicing its main character, Pete.[17] Shrigley also produced a series of drawings and t-shirt designs for the 2006 Triptych festival, a Scottish music festival lasting for three to four days in three cities. He also designed twelve different covers for Deerhoof's 2007 record, Friend Opportunity.[18] In the same year he also designed the title sequence for the film Hallam Foe, as well as the drawings and the writing in Hallam's on-screen diaries.

Shrigley's mascot for Scottish football team Partick Thistle, "Kingsley" in George Square, Glasgow

In 2014, Jonathan Jones reviewed Shrigley's work Brass Tooth, writing, "David Shrigley must have had a big, toothy grin when he created multiple editions of his sculpture Brass Tooth, which goes on sale for £1,200 a pop at the London art fair this week. It is a cast of a single tooth – including the roots – and is typical of Shrigley's sly, subversive, humorous art in how it brings a modern art cliche crashing down to Earth".[19]

In 2015, he designed "Kingsley", a mascot for Scottish football team Partick Thistle as part of a sponsorship deal. The mascot's design was the object of some amusement, with Scottish BuzzFeed reporter Jamie Ross describing it as "based on every nightmare I had as a child."[20][21][22][23]

Shrigley also undertook a residency at Auckland’s Two Rooms in 2015, during which he painted for the first time since his graduation from The Glasgow School of Art in 1991. He said that the residency presented ‘an opportunity to explore a different medium and explore what you can do with “that” versus what you do with “this”.’[24]

Shrigley's sculpture Really Good was installed on Trafalgar Square's Fourth plinth in September 2016[25][26] until March 2018. The bronze cast of a fist with an out-of-proportion thumbs-up was the winning commission for the Fourth Plinth Project, which has been inviting artists since 1999 to make a proposal for the empty plinth, originally intended to hold an equestrian statue of William IV that was never made. "I made a drawing of an elongated thumb that said everything is good and I wrote some text that sounded like some sort of weird political satire: If we make this sculpture, we can make the world a better place through some kind of self–fulfilling prophecy.”[27]

In 2019, he designed the yellow and red card of the AS Velasca.[28]

Shrigley was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to visual arts.[29]

Exhibitions

In 2020, Shrigley released a body of work entitled 'Lockdown Drawings'.[30] 340 pieces of art inspired by the UK's coronavirus lockdown in spring 2020 were displayed in the Stephen Friedman Gallery.[31]

Recent notable solo exhibitions include Do Not Touch the Worms, Copenhagen Contemporary, Denmark (2020); Exhibition of Inflatable Swan Things, Spritmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden (2018); David Shrigley, Hall Art Foundation, Reading, Vermont, USA (2017); Life Model II, Rose Art Museum, Waltham, Mass., USA (2016); David Shrigley: Life and Life Drawing, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (2014); David Shrigley: Brain Activity, YBCA, San Francisco (2012)[32] Animate, Turku Art Museum, Finland (2011); Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow International Festival of Visual Arts, Glasgow, Scotland (2010); New Powers, Kunsthalle Mainz, Germany (2009); David Shrigley, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany (2008); Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK (2008); Everything Must Have a Name, Malmö Konsthall, Malmo, Sweden (2007) and David Shrigley, Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee, Scotland (2006).[33]

Jason Mraz took the name of his album We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. from a work by Shrigley.[34]

In January 2016, Shrigley's work was part of a British Council-organised international touring exhibition.[35][36] Previewing the touring David Shrigley: Lose Your Mind exhibition before it opened in Guadalajara, Mexico, BBC Arts said: "Best known for his crudely composed and mordantly humorous cartoons, David Shrigley is a highly popular British artist […] Featuring works as diverse as cartoonish ceramic boots, doodle-like drawings and a headless, stuffed ostrich, the exhibition highlights Shrigley's lively, irreverent imagination in full flow".[37] In the same month, he contributed to the Liverpool Provocations event in Liverpool's city centre.[38]

Publications
  • This Is A Paper Trinket For You To Wear
  • How Are You Feeling
  • To Make Meringue You Must
  • Man in a Room
  • Do Not Bend
  • The Book of Shrigley
  • Ants Have Sex in Your Beer
  • Slug Trails
  • Merry Eczema
  • Blanket of Filth
  • Enquire Within
  • Let Not These Shadows Fall Upon Thee
  • Err
  • Drawings Done Whilst on the Phone To Idiot
  • Why We Got The Sack From The Museum
  • Centre Parting
  • Order of Service
  • To Make Meringue You Must Beat The Egg Whites Until They Look Like This
  • Blank Page And Other Pages
  • The Beast Is Near
  • Hard Work
  • Leotard
  • Joy
  • Yellow Bird With Worm
  • Human Achievement
  • Who I Am And What I Want
  • Let's Wrestle
  • Rules
  • Kill Your Pets
  • It Is It
  • Blocked Path
  • Photographs with Text
  • Worried Noodles – The Empty Sleeve
  • Hand
  • Red Book
  • What The Hell Are You Doing? The Essential David Shrigley
  • Fragments of Torn Up Drawings
  • Weak Messages Create Bad Situations

Music

In 2006, Shrigley's first spoken word album Shrigley Forced to Speak With Others was released by Azuli Records, under their Late Night Tales label.[39][40] In October 2007, Tomlab released Worried Noodles, a double CD of artists including David Byrne, Islands, Liars, Grizzly Bear, Mount Eerie, R. Stevie Moore and Final Fantasy putting Shrigley's 2005 book of the same name to music.[41] Moore went on to record an entire album of new songs set to Shrigley's Worried Noodles lyrics called Shrigley Field.[42]

Awards

Shrigley was nominated for the 2013 Turner Prize.[43] He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Leicester's De Montfort University at a ceremony on 17 July 2014.[44]

References
  1. Edwin Gilson, "Five minutes with... David Shrigley, Brighton Festival 2018 guest director". The Argus (Brighton), 16 February 2018. Accessed 28 February 2018.
  2. "About the artist". British Council. Accessed 28 February 2018.
  3. "Introducing… David Shrigley". Brighton Dome. Accessed 28 February 2018.
  4. "David Shrigley".
  5. Greer, Stuart (7 February 2014). "Thumbs up for Macclesfield artist".
  6. Gatti, Tom (4 March 2009). "David Shrigley: the joker with a deadly punchline". The Times. Archived from the original on 2 February 2016. Alt URL
  7. Ramaswamy, Chitra (12 April 2010). "Interview: David Shrigley, artist". The Scotsman. Archived from the original on 18 June 2018. Alt URL
  8. Fisher, Glenn (2005). "What's with all the Funny Stuff?". David Shrigley. Archived from the original on 26 April 2006.
  9. "Interview with Bill Kenny, 2003". David Shrigley. 2003. Archived from the original on 11 October 2011.
  10. "David Shrigley on his childhood, Adam and the Ants and Glasgow School of Art".
  11. "Not Deadly Serious: Glasgow School of Art graduate David Shrigley's macabre humour has seen his show at London's Hayward Gallery shortlisted for the Turner Prize".
  12. Barnicoat, Becky (23 June 2015). "Before they were famous: art stars on their final degree shows". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  13. Miller, Phil (27 January 2012). "A man of the people" (PDF). Herland Scotland. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  14. "Bonnie "Prince" Billy – Agnes, Queen of Sorrow, Drag City". www.dragcity.com. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  15. "David Shrigley Animations". www.davidshrigley.com. Archived from the original on 7 January 2016. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  16. "David Shrigley | Paddle8". Paddle8. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  17. "Films : Who I Am and What I Want". animate!. 2005.
  18. Archived 24 December 2006 at the Wayback Machine
  19. Jones, Jonathan (15 January 2014). "Would you pay £1,200 for one of David Shrigley's teeth?". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  20. Ross, Jamie. "Twitter post". Twitter. Retrieved 23 June 2015.
  21. "Partick Thistle unveil 'terrifying' new mascot Kingsley". www.bbc.co.uk. BBC. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  22. Grez, Matias. "Partick Thistle's new mascot Kingsley: Scary or sun-like?". www.cnn.com. CNN. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  23. Bull, JJ. "Partick Thistle unveil utterly terrifying new mascot". Telegraph. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  24. Brettkelly-Chalmers, Kate (2015). "David Shrigley in Conversation With Kate Brettkelly-Chalmers". Ocula Magazine.
  25. Jones, Jonathan (29 September 2016). "Thumbs up to David Shrigley's fabulously feel-bad fourth plinth". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
  26. Pickford, James (15 January 2014). "Thumbs up for David Shrigley and Hans Haacke sculptures in London". Financial Times. London. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  27. Alexia Antsakli Vardinoyanni. David Shrigley Interview: Thumbs up. artflyernet. Accessed 29 January 2018.
  28. Velasca's objets utiles. Artists Velasca. asvelasca.it. 15 June 2020.
  29. "No. 62866". The London Gazette (Supplement). 28 December 2019. p. N14.
  30. "David Shrigley: Lockdown Drawings". artlyst.
  31. "David Shrigley". stephenfriedman.
  32. "David Shrigley Info". David Shrigley (Artist's Website).
  33. David Shrigley – Arms Fayre, 8 February 2012 – 10 March 2012. Stephen Friedman Gallery, London.
  34. Blair, Tom (November 2008). San Diego Magazine. CurtCo/SDM LLC. p. 46.
  35. Shea, Christopher D. (15 January 2016). "What's on This Week Around the World". The New York Times. New York. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  36. "David Shrigley: Lose Your Mind". British Council. 2015.
  37. "David Shrigley's invitation to Lose Your Mind in Mexico". BBC Online. 7 January 2015. Retrieved 27 January 2016.
  38. Jones, Catherine (20 January 2016). "Liverpool 'Big Mouth' is reading city shoppers' thoughts". Liverpool Echo. Liverpool. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  39. "Shrigley Forced To Speak With Others – Shrigley Forced To Speak With Others". Discogs. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  40. "LateNightTales: David Shrigely". latenighttales.co.uk. Archived from the original on 6 October 2016. Retrieved 6 October 2016.
  41. "New Cd From David Shrigley, Worried Noodles, 2007". www.davidshrigley.com. Archived from the original on 6 December 2008. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  42. "Shrigley Field". www.rsteviemoore.com. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  43. "Turner prize 2013: who gets your vote? | Art and design | theguardian.com". theguardian.com. 2013. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
  44. "Artist David Shrigley Honorary Doctor of Arts degree from De Montfort University". 22 July 2014.
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