Nicolai Wallner

David Shrigley

15 Jan - 05 Mar 2016

David Shrigley
Untitled (Live in the moment) (2015)
Acrylic on paper
127.5 x 92.6 cm
DAVID SHRIGLEY
Coloured Works On Paper
15 January - 5 March 2016

Galleri Nicolai Wallner is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new works by David Shrigley. Aptly titled COLOURED WORKS ON PAPER, the show is comprised of precisely this.

Hung side by side creating a straight line, the resulting serialised effect of Shrigley’s large-scale coloured works on paper is almost overwhelming as if imitating our inner thoughts—a stream of consciousness made physically evident, running from one end of the space to the other.

Each work holds a specific focus. Some confront the viewer directly, with messages like “Attend more events”, “Fight the nonsense” and “I am afraid to make mistakes and it hinders my progress”, while some go at step beyond and ask questions like “Is this ok?” with another work answering “It’s ok”. Others are more demonstrative, with eggs, doors, sky, windows, body parts, signs, mirrors, birds, clocks, floating shapes and rubbish all capture our imagination along with their written descriptions.

Together they create a dialogue in many parts and fragments, sending us different messages all at once, yet in a way that does not overextend but rather asks us what brings them all together. Are the questions and thoughts directed at us, or rather are they more reflective of Shrigley and how he sees himself? Or rather, is it both? Chaotic and colourful, Shrigley focuses on the absurdity of what we all share—a sense of what it is to be human. It is this sense that remains universal while also feeling quite intimate at the same time.

Taking the pathetic, melancholic and disillusioned attributes present in daily life, as well as the more mundane, and that which thrills and exhilarates us, Shrigley’s work is both honest and entertaining, contemplating issues such as death, love, insecurities and other emotional traumas in a manner that is quite factual and unapologetic.

David Shrigley (b. 1968, Great Britain) has exhibited extensively around the world, with renowned solo exhibitions at the Hammer Museum (Los Angeles), Hayward Gallery (London), the National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne), and the Pinakothek der Moderne (Munich), as well as other exhibitions at the Scottish National Gallery (Edinburgh), Centre Pompidou-Metz (Metz), MCA (Chicago), MoMA (New York) and Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts (San Francisco) among many others. In 2013, he was nominated for the prestigious Turner Prize, and in the same year was awarded the 2016 commission for the Fourth Plinth at Trafalgar Square in London, to be realised later this year. In 2015, he opened a solo show touring internationally with the British Council beginning with Mexico and continuing to Chile, Korea and New Zealand throughout 2016.
 

Tags: David Shrigley