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Drawings & Notes

1 January 2023
drawing David Shrigley Untitled (I Like It), 2022 acrylic on paper - contemporary drawing, painting, work on paper, contemporary art, art on paper

David Shrigley

Untitled (I Like It), 2022
acrylic on paper
55 x 55 cm

David Shrigley. Proposals for Record Covers
3 December 2022 – 28 January 2023
Galerie Francesca Pia, Zürich

David Shrigley
Untitled (I Still See Him When I Close My Eyes), 2022
acrylic on paper
55 x 55 cm

[from the pressrelease]
Shrigley’s oeuvre includes classical artistic media such as drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, video, and installation, among others, as well as the publication of numerous books, cartoons for newspapers, his own merchandising products, and the design of record covers. Thus, the exhibition’s title Proposals for Record Covers can also be understood as a reference to his own navigation between the art world— in the narrower sense—and a more commercial context, whereby one does not exclude the other. Instead, these different spheres enrich each other. At the same time, the title can also be understood as an absurd task that does not seek fulfilment.
Formally, the fifty new paintings on display—all acrylic on paper—in fact resemble oversized record covers. They are square, and the subjects are usually depicted frontally and centered; they take up a large part of the surface and are compelling in their reserved colourfulness, which strongly stand out against the background, which is always white. In terms of content, the works are based on the humorous image-text combinations for which Shrigley has become known, particularly in the context of his drawings. These range from obvious tautologies, as in Untitled (Centre Parting) and his surprising health tips as in Untitled (Cigarettes Are Good for You, in a Way) or negotiate strange fears as in Untitled (Red Guitar, Do Not Be Afraid of It), to mention only a few examples.
In these paintings, Shrigley manages to reduce his ideas to the absolute minimum in order to communicate as simply and directly as possible. In combination with his dry, often biting humour, Shrigley’s works address banalities and shortcomings of everyday life, society and the state of the world, in order to demonstrate just how valuable humour is as a means of healthy detachment, especially in times like ours.

David Shrigley
Untitled (Here), 2022
acrylic on paper
55 x 55 cm

David Shrigley
Untitled (Punk Cannot Be Created or Destroyed), 2022
acrylic on paper
55 x 55 cm

25 April 2019

David Shrigley

Untitled (Public Opinion), 2019
acrylic and oil bar on paper
83 x 58.4 cm

David Shrigley: Fluff War
25 April – 15 June 2019
Anton Kern Gallery, New York

David Shrigley

Untitled (Exhibition of dirt), 2019
acrylic and oil bar on paper
105 x 74 cm

[from the pressrelease]
In his seventh solo exhibition at Anton Kern Gallery, entitled FLUFF WAR, British artist David Shrigley presents a large-scale kinetic sculpture, two neon sculptures, and 100 new drawings.

As visitors approach the gallery, they are greeted by a two-part magenta neon sign bearing contradictory instructions: one reads “WEAR SHOES” and the other “DO NOT WEAR SHOES”. The storefront window signage will seem perfectly at home to a passerby, as the gallery is located in New York’s famed Fifth Avenue shopping district. Here you are initiated into the world of David Shrigley.

Inside, further into the space, is another neon sign announcing that you have entered the arena of “FLUFF WAR”, the exhibition’s eponymous work. The structure of FLUFF WAR is a ten foot by ten foot square enclosure akin to a miniature soccer stadium or a giant air hockey table. Trapped inside are clusters of black wooly fluff being blown about a smooth white floor by gusts of wind coming in through surrounding vents.

War is a cheeky misnomer for what the fluff is engaged in. Incapable of exerting its own will, the fluff is at the whim of hidden fans, randomly sequenced by a computer program, blowing at varying intervals and strengths. It remains unclear which fluff is winning or losing, what the objective is, or if there is one at all. Regardless, one can easily become an enraptured observer of this nonsensical activity.

David’s new drawings continue in his tradition of combining image and text to deliver comically deadpan messages that resonate on philosophical, ethical, and political levels. The large color works rendered in acrylic and oil bar read immediately like signs or advertisements, while the small black ink drawings are graphically complex, and invite the viewer to inspect closely. The benign declarations and mischievous wishes in Shrigley’s works express the pathos, tedium, irony, and oftentimes ridiculousness of everyday life.

David Shrigley

Untitled (Candidates), 2019
ink on paper
29.7 x 21 cm

David Shrigley

Untitled (Kindness), 2019
Oil bar and gesso on paper
105 x 74 cm

25 December 2011
Santa Claus is not evil

David Shrigley

Untitled, 1996
Pencil and ink on paper
29.7 x 21.1 cm

A weblog about contemporary drawing, scribbles, notes and an occasional painting or photograph. Click on images to go directly to original pictures, or on the links to learn more about the artist involved. 

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