Before You Can Entertain, 2021

David Shrigley   Famous Artists

David Shrigley, born on September 17, 1968, in Macclesfield, is a British visual artist known for his distinctive graphic style and absurdist humor. A graduate in Environmental Art from the Glasgow School of Art in 1991, he lived in Glasgow for 27 years before relocating to Brighton and Devon in 2015.

His work, characterized by intentionally naïve line drawings accompanied by ironic text, offers a sharp and humorous commentary on the absurdities of everyday life. Although drawing is central to his practice, Shrigley also works with sculpture, animation, photography, music, and installations. Among his notable projects are the monumental sculpture Really Good (2016), installed on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, London, and the exhibition Pulped Fiction (2023), in which he pulped 6,000 copies of The Da Vinci Code to reprint George Orwell's 1984.

Shrigley was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2013 and was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2020 for his services to visual arts. He also received an honorary doctorate from De Montfort University in 2014. His work has been exhibited in prestigious institutions such as the Hayward Gallery in London (Brain Activity, 2012), the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne (Life and Life Drawing, 2014), and the Rose Art Museum in the United States (Life Model II, 2016).

Dedicated to promoting arts education, Shrigley unveiled a giant animatronic praying mantis sculpture, Mantis Muse, at his former school in Oadby in 2024 to highlight the importance of including the arts in school curricula. He advocates for transforming the STEM acronym into STEAM, incorporating the arts alongside science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

His publications include Worried Noodles, a collection of texts set to music by various artists, and What the Hell Are You Doing?, a compilation of his most iconic works. Shrigley continues to shape contemporary art with his unique approach, blending dark humor and social critique.