Biography
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Born
17 September 1968 (age 55)
David Shrigley is a Glasgow-based artist. Born in Macclesfield on September 17th 1968, he grew up in Oadby, Leicestershire, England. He attended City of Leicester Polytechnic's Art & Design course in 1987-1988, and subsequently studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1988-1991. Although he has worked with various media, most of his work is in the form of mordantly humorous cartoons released in softcover books or postcard packs. He exhibits much of his environmental art on his website.
Like the poet Ivor Cutler, Shrigley finds humour in flat depictions of the inconsequential, the unavailing and the bizarre - although he is far fonder than Cutler of violent or otherwise disquieting subject matter. Shrigley's work has two of the characteristics often encountered in outsider art - an odd viewpoint, and (in some of his work) very limited technique. His freehand line is often weak, which jars with his frequent use of a ruler; his forms are often very crude; and annotations in his drawings are poorly executed and frequently contain crossings-out. However, in authentic outsider art the artist has no choice but to produce work in his or her own way, even if that work is freakish in content and inept in execution. It is likely that Shrigley has chosen his style and range of subject matter for comic effect.
Shrigley is a graduate of the Environmental Art course at the Glasgow School of Art. He is the author of several books and has directed the video for Blur's 'Good Song'. His work is exhibited all over the world. From 2005 he has contributed a cartoon for the Guardian's Weekend magazine every saturday. He is represented in Paris by the Yvon Lambert Gallery.
David Shrigley co-directed an animate!-commissioned film with award winning director Chris Shepherd called Who I Am And What I Want, based on Shrigley's book of the same title. Kevin Eldon voiced its main character, Pete. He 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 has also designed twelve different covers for Deerhoof's forthcoming 2007 record, Friend Opportunity.
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