Galleri Nicolai Wallner is pleased to present our latest solo show with David Shrigley, People Reveal Themselves Slowly—An Exhibition by David Shrigley.

David Shrigley’s practice pointedly questions our understanding of truth and meaning, and the reality and banality of our day-to-day life. Working primarily with drawing, as well as sculpture, installation and animation, Shrigley challenges us to look at what we have accepted or take for granted as true or as convention.

Working from a humorous, often deadpan, place, Shrigley’s near iconic style combines text and imagery in an often juxtaposing way—creating a space for us to interrogate the ideas he’s presented us with. Ranging from topics like spilt beverages, haircuts, or going up stairs, to politics, death and more surreal and existential questions, Shrigley brilliantly weaves them together in a way that feels both personal, relevant, and thought-provoking. Depictions of regular objects like mirrors, shoes and doors, as well as animals, the weather, and other natural phenomena reiterate and ground his practice in what we often dismiss as mundane.

Shrigley’s use of wit combined with keen observation skills brings together many of the diverse, complex and often contradictory elements of human emotion, existence, and the realities that we all share. In so doing, he validates our experiences, while at the same time engaging us to interrogate the status quo.

With this exhibition, David Shrigley introduces a collaging technique into his works on paper. Incorporating cutouts of his own painted element into his established drawing practice, he deftly layers them in ways that feel both chaotic yet deeply intimate, enveloping us in a thought or a moment. This is echoed in Shrigley’s bold use of large brushstrokes in pinks, blues, yellows and greens, often covering the majority of the paper, drawing us in and in a way blocking everything else out, allowing us to interact with the works one at a time.

The result is an incredibly immersive experience, and one that is ultimately very human.

David Shrigley OBE (b. 1968, UK) has received international and critical acclaim for his work, with many notable solo and group exhibitions worldwide. He was nominated for the prestigious Turner Prize Award in 2013, following his major mid-career retrospective at the Hayward Gallery (London). In 2016, David Shrigley’s seven meter tall “thumbs up” sculpture was unveiled in Trafalgar Square, for the Fourth Plinth Commission. Shrigley’s works are found in prominent collections around the world, including Museum of Modern Art (New York), Tate Britain (London), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Museum Ludwig (Cologne) and the National Gallery of Denmark (Copenhagen) among many others. In 2020, Shrigley was awarded an OBE Officer of the Order of the British Empire in The Queen’s New Years Honours list for services to Visual Arts.

The gallery has had the pleasure of collaborating with David Shrigley since 1996.

David Shrigley photographed in his exhibition, February 2024 Photo: Andreas Johnsen