David Shrigley

In the summer of 2014 – 15, National Gallery of Victoria presents David Shrigley: Life and Life Drawing, a comprehensive exhibition – his first major survey in Australia – of new and recent work by the internationally renowned Glasgow-based artist. Shrigley has developed a cult following for his stripped back, darkly humourous and deliberately crude drawings that explore existential dramas, human dysfunction and anxiety.

David Shrigley: Life and Life Drawing encompasses drawings, paintings, sculpture, animated videos, artist books, and a major new commission for NGV International’s Waterwall titled General Store. The artist’s omnipresent sense of humour lies at the heart of these works, which are manifest in tragicomic narratives that reflect on the banality and absurdity of everyday life and objects.

As English art critic Adrian Searle has noted, ‘Shrigley’s work is very wrong and very bad in all sorts of ways. It is also ubiquitous and compelling. There are lots of artists who, furrowing their brows and trying to convince us of their seriousness, aren’t half as profound or compelling.’