Born in 1968, Treacle Town (Macclesfield), the artist lived and worked in Glasgow, Scotland for 27 years before moving to Brighton, England in 2015. His introduction to art came in the form of record covers and by age 11 his driving desire was to design artwork for Adam and the Ants. Raised by fundamentalist Christian parents in Leicester, Shrigley grew up drawing in sketchbooks and notepads, before attending the Glasgow School of Art. He studied Fine Art, but his interest in drawing comedic works, often devoid of much formal craft, made him an outlier amongst his peers.

Shrigley has become a virtuoso in the forming of a deftly crafted mix of dark and light humour channelled via the simplest of forms. His deadpan drawings and acerbic nihilisms speak to universal mores, or largely unspoken melancholy, and through their uncontextualized nature they have unintentionally mirrored the development of the language of the internet, or as Shrigley puts it, “social media parlance.” This overlap has propelled his work into the everyday, carrying that lauded ability to reach both art gallery connoisseurs and your “Susan’s from Accounting,” thereby making Shrigley one of contemporary art’s most successful names.

David Shrigley: “I feel like I’ve become famous for picking my nose … somehow somebody saw me picking my nose and thought, ‘Ah, that’s cool! Nobody else picks their nose like you do!”

David Shrigley

British

Cornellà’s work has often been described as disturbing or flat-out offensive. Through simplistic visual language, he is able to use satire to comment on the sinister and often bleak side of human nature through a myriad of unconventional scenarios. Everything from our unnatural connection to social media and masturbatory selfie culture to political topics such as abortion, addiction and gender issues - no subject is off limits. Cornellà’s work revels in its absurdity and impropriety.

Upon first glance, Cornellà’s work seems light-hearted and playful, his figures all share a generic blank smile and bright cheery color palette (akin to 1950’s advertising or Airline safety pamphlets) Upon further inspection however, the overwhelming morbidness and unnerving nature shines through with unparalleled force. Black comedy, at it’s core, is about satirizing subjects that are traditionally prohibited, things that are seen as too sa-cred or off limits. Cornellà pokes fun at such topics and cuts to their core with gags and minimal visual clues, illustrating scenes of cannibalism, infanticide, deification, murder, suicide and amputation (used most frequently). While some feel affronted by his work, many connect over it, laughing and feeling bad for laughing all at the same time.

Thought-provoking, honest and incredibly entertaining, Cornellà's work is truly since-re and holds real potency in its message, even when disguised through blatant humor. In the artist’s own words: “I think we all laugh at misery. We must start from the idea that when we laugh, we laugh at someone or something. With empathy or not, there is always some degree of cruelty. In spite of that, I am aware that if one of my cartoons happened in real life I would not laugh at all”.

Cornellà’s audience and fans share a certain level of skepticism and cynicism that unify their shared experience: “I agree with a phrase by Bill Hicks: ‘I believe there is an equality to all humanity. We all suck.’ In my comics characters are like plastic and always have a big smile even though horrible things happen to them constantly. Everything is exaggerated, although certain behaviours can relate to real life,” he says.

Joan Cornella

Spanish

Main

Artist

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I GOT YOUR FACE TATTOOED TO REMEMBER HOW MUCH I HATE YOU