Before the Lawn Takes its Revenge…

05.06 – 05.09.2021

Like most Californians, I come from someplace else and was gathered to the purpose of California like a metal-eating flower gathers the sunshine, the rain, and then to the freeway beckons its petals and lets the cars drive in, millions of cars into but a single flower, the scent choked with congestion and room for millions more.

Richard Brautigan, Revenge of the Lawn, Stories, 1962-1970

The singular worlds of David Shrigley extend across multiple media and practices, from drawings to installations and sculptures, not to mention animation, photography, video, and music production. In these worlds we find antiheroes who are awkward, goofy, disingenuously naive, and at times mean. They are immersed in the chaos of an absurd world where all human activities seem inevitably doomed to failure. 

The characters, fragile by nature, share their idle days with a troupe of animals and fantastic creatures that seem exiled from some fairy tale or born of the lunatic imaginings of a science fiction writer. The tragicomedies invented by the artist are as disturbing as they are enchanting and keep us immersed in a state of perpetual surprise where humor and drama vie our for attention, opening the way to extraordinary poetry. 

Some one hundred black and white drawings were produced ten years ago for a show in Yvon Lambert’s Paris gallery. These drawings, along with recent, more colorful works paying homage to nature, relate to the perennial question of finding our place in the world, and doing so with salutatory jubilation, despite any and all opposition.

David Shrigley was born in 1968 in Macclesfield (United Kingdom).

He lives and works in Brighton (United Kingdom). 

With the support of Maison Ruinart.