David Shrigley was born in 1968 in Macclesfield, Greatbritain and studied at the Glasgow School of Art. He is best known for his satirical drawings with text, which make fun of and display the banality of everyday situations with black humour. Most of his work consists of drawings, sculptures, installations and paintings. As a big music fan he also designs record covers again and again.
Shrigley describes his own style as “a kind of artistic doodling, coupled with a not-so-beautiful handwriting.” Described by his professors as “too funny,” Shrigley has always felt, however, that he “only wants to draw like this, not any other way.” Serious art can also be funny, and the opposite of serious art is not funny art, but bad art, Shrigley said.
David Shrigley 데이비드 슈리글리 lives outside Glasgow and still draws cartoons for publications such as The Guardian and The New Statesman. Shrigley was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2013, following his major retrospective at the Hayward Gallery in London entitled “Brain Activity”. In early 2014 he was commissioned to design a sculpture for the fourth pedestal of Trafalgar Square. “Really Good” was unveiled in September 2016 for the Fourth Plinth Commission. From 2015 to 2018, the exhibition “Lose Your Mind”, organised by the British Council, travelled to six locations around the world, including Shanghai, China, Seoul and Mexico. In January 2020, Shrigley was awarded the “Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire” (OBE). In March 2020 Ruinart Champagne announced Shrigley as his Artist Carte Blanche for 2020.
Shrigley’s works can be found in major international collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA, the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, USA, the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany, the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany, the Statens Museum für Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation for Contemporary Art, Vienna, Austria, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Scotland, the Tate, London, England, and the British Council, London, England, the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.
The Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich dedicated the first major solo exhibition to him in Germany in 2014.
FRANK FLUEGEL GALERIE is representing the artist at the Nuremberg and Kitzbuehel locations since 2019.
In January 2022 several new auction records for british artist David Shrigley were set at Auction House Phillips London Evening & Day Editions 19-20 January 2022.
The original prints “Fast Train”, “I have never seen you” or “To Hell with Zoos” besides “Stop Panicking Goose” sold at new record highs.
Also in 2022 David Shrigley (데이비드 슈리글리) was on view at the K Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul/Korea through April 17th , 2022.
Selected Solo Exhibitions:
2025 To be announced.
2024 People Reveal Themselves Slowly, Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen, Denmark.
2023
Melbourne Tennis Ball Exchange, Triennial at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia
Really Good, Triennial at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia
Pulped Fiction, Oxfam Books & Music, 34 Castle Street, Swansea, Wales
2022
Be Nice: Prints & Drawings by David Shrigley, FRANK FLUEGEL GALERIE, Deutschland.
2021
K Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea
Sayaka Murata’s Utopias—Violence and the Structure of Normality: David Shrigley & Teppei Kaneuji in dialogue with Murata’s worldview, Gyre, Tokyo, Japan (two-person)
Before the Lawn Takes its Revenge…, Collection Lambert, Avignon, France
2020
CLARITY: IT IS VERY IMPORTANT, Yumiko Chiba Associates, Tokyo, Japan
Do Not Touch the Worms, Copenhagen Contemporary, Denmark
Fond Memories of Giant Bug, Jiri Svestka Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
2019
Kindness: Prints & Drawings by David Shrigley, Newstead Abbey Historic House & Gardens, Nottinghamshire
Do it (do not do it), Museo de arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, Mexico
David Shrigley: To Be of Use, Art Omi, Ghent, New York, USA
Exhibition of Inflatable Swan Things and Other Things, Copenhagen, Denmark
Fluff War, Anton Kern Gallery, New York, USA
David Shrigley, Two Rooms, Auckland, New Zealand
2018
Power Station of Art & Design, Shanghai, China
Life Model II, Fabrica, Brighton, UK
Laughterhouse, Deste Foundation Project Space, Hydra, Athens, Greece
Exhibition of Inflatable Swan Things, Spritmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden
2017
Yumiko Chiba Associates, Tokyo, Japan
Hall Art Foundation, Reading
Anton Kern Gallery, New York
2016-2018
Really Good, The Fourth Plinth, Trafalgar Square, London,uk
2016
Printemps en Septembre, Toulouse
Rose Art Museum, Waltham, Mass, USA
MAC, Santiago, Chile
2015
Instituto Cultural Cabanas,Guadalajara, Mexico
Anton Kern Gallery, New York
Two Rooms, Auckland
2014-2018
Sketch, London, England
2014
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Pinakothek, Munich
2012 Hayward Gallery, London