Artwork details

Artist

Title

White Elephant

Description

David Shrigley's drawings, paintings, animations, and neon texts embrace cartoon aesthetics and an absurd, deadpan sensibility. The artist delights in satirizing everyday human interactions, filtering the mundane through a sense of childlike wonder and an unguarded sense of humor. Shrigley tends to use certain subjects, including animals, to depict their stereotyped behaviors and characteristics. The artist’s naïve drawing style and his unusual subject evoke a child’s imagination.

Date

2021

Medium

Linocut

Edition

Edition of 100

Signature

Unsigned

Sheet

57 x 44 cm

Status

Sold

David Shrigley

English-born artist David Shrigley has created pieces in many different formats and worked extensively in the pop culture sphere. His oeuvre includes collaborations with musicians such as David Byrne and the group Franz Ferdinand, and designs for t-shirts and drawings for the Triptych Scottish music festivals. Shrigley grew up in Leicestershire, starting his artistic career with an art and design foundation course in 1987 at Leicester Polytechnic. From there he went to the Glasgow School of Art and gained a degree in environmental art, graduating in 1991 and staying in the city for another 27 years. He has also directed music videos for Blur and Bonnie Prince Billy, created cartoons for the Guardian newspaper and, in partnership with several musicians, released an album called ‘Worried Noodles’. He’s also written books, created spoken word recordings and sculpture. One of his most well-known pieces is a sculpture he created for the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square called ‘Really Good’. It depicts a fist in bronze with an oversized thumb sticking up. His work has been shown at exhibitions across Europe. Although his degree show wasn’t much appreciated by his university tutors, in 2013 he gained the recognition of the art establishment by winning the Turner Prize for contemporary art. David Shrigley moved to Brighton in 2015.