David Shrigley, Untitled (Pelt), 2005

Untitled (Pelt) (2005) – David Shrigley Woodcut

About the Work

Untitled (Pelt) (2005) is a striking David Shrigley woodcut that captures the artist's celebrated graphic sensibility through a raw, primitive print technique. Riffing on his iconic black-and-white drawings, this composition presents the stark, flattened silhouette of an animal skin rendered with heavy, hand-carved black ink against a crisp white background. The graphic simplicity of the form immediately draws the viewer into a space where domestic decor and wild nature collide.

By rendering a traditionally luxurious trophy of the hunt as a crude, cartoonish outline, the work dryly critiques human dominance over the natural world. This physical representation of taxidermy taps into a profound sense of absurdity, highlighting the bizarre domestic practice of turning living creatures into floor coverings. The intentional lack of detail on the interior of the shape emphasises its empty, hollowed-out state, reflecting a characteristically dark undercurrent of humour.

David Shrigley

As a Turner Prize nominee celebrated for his dry wit, David Shrigley has secured an enduring position within contemporary British art. His celebrated public commissions, most notably the colossal bronze thumb on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square and his regular contributions to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, demonstrate a rare ability to engage both institutional critics and the wider public. Examples of his work are held in prominent international museum collections, including Tate and the British Council.

His practice translates the immediate, unedited energy of his daily drawing routine into highly controlled graphic editions. Through these formal editions, the casual, immediate quality of a sketch is elevated into a permanent, collectible statement. Acquiring a David Shrigley print allows collectors to engage with this unique graphic lexicon, which sits comfortably between high art and everyday observation.

Screenprint Process

Published in collaboration with the prestigious Glasgow-based studio The Modern Institute, this rare graphic project represents a departure from the artist's usual screenprint output. Rather than utilising his standard screenprinting methods, this work was hand-carved from a wooden block and pressed onto heavy, archival Somerset paper to preserve the deep, rich texture of the ink. The heavy block pressure creates a subtle indentation in the paper, adding a tactile dimension that is rarely found in his more common screenprints.

By using the ancient relief printing method, the artist highlights the physical grain of the wood block, which mirrors the organic subject matter. This deliberate choice of medium ensures that each individual David Shrigley limited edition print possesses its own subtle variations in ink density and wood grain pattern. Collaborating with The Modern Institute allowed the artist to experiment with this tactile printmaking process, balancing raw materiality with his characteristic graphic clarity.

Collectability

As a highly coveted entry in his graphic catalogue, the work commands significant collector interest due to its extremely small edition size of just 20 copies. Unlike his larger edition releases, this early woodcut captures a pivotal moment of experimentation before his graphic aesthetic became globally ubiquitous. The bold, graphic shape aligns perfectly with the recognisable imagery that has come to define his most sought-after market outputs.

Representing a highly unusual animal motif from his influential mid-2000s institutional period, the piece remains a particularly desirable example of Shrigley's printmaking practice. Given the extremely limited edition size and its placement in early career exhibitions, examples of this woodcut are highly prized on the secondary market. Its scarcity, combined with the growing international demand for his early graphic output, underpins its enduring appeal for discerning collectors.