Shrigley was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire but moved when he was two with his parents and sister to Leicestershire. He took the Art and Design Foundation course at Leicester Polytechnic in 1987 and then studied environmental art at Glasgow School of Art from 1988 to 1991. Talking about his final degree show, Shrigley later told The Guardian’s Becky Barnicoat, "I thought my degree show was brilliant, but the people who were marking it didn't. I got a 2:2. They didn't appreciate my genius.[…] I didn't sell anything at the show – it was 1991, before the Young British Artists. There wasn't a precedent for people selling work that wasn't figurative painting”.
Shrigley is a notably popular contemporary artist with an eye for social observation and often a great deal of humour. He is prolific painter and printmaker and was given a commission by the then Mayor of London and produced Really Good which was shown on Trafalgar Square’s Fourth plinth between 2016-2018.
In 2020 Shrigley was appointed an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II and he lives and works in Brighton.
