Angus Fairhurst

Angus Fairhurst (1966-2008) is an artist whose wit, passion, and integrity led him to become one of the key players in the contemporary British art scene of the last three decades. He emerged as an artist of great talent in 1988 whilst still a student at Goldsmiths, when he helped organise and contributed work to the seminal exhibition Freeze. His work spans a vast range of media, including drawing, painting, sculpture, collage, performance, installation, and video, often which are used in beguiling combination; it is both provocative and versatile, having connections with the conceptual art of the 1960s and 70s, as well as with the appropriative strategies of Duchamp and Dada beyond that. From his early drawings and biomorphic animations to the bronze gorillas and magazine collages of later years, his art consistently exhibits an idiosyncratic humour and shrewd dexterity.

This monograph, the first of its kind, was planned in close collaboration with the artist. It includes a foreword by Sir Nicholas Serota, director of Tate, and in-depth essays by Sacha Craddock and James Cahill, which begins with his final show at Sadie Coles HQ in 2008 and is thematically arranged to address the varied facets of his work: the computer-generated paintings, bronze sculptures, collages and silkscreen prints.