With the post-Christmas merriment and the back-to-office shake well underway, life can feel hard to navigate around. At this time of year, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the dark days as we adjust back to normality. Let’s inspire and offer some light into the new year with these uplifting artworks set to bring some warmth back inside and raise the spirits.
David Shrigley: Live Each Day As If It Were your First, 2022
What better way to kick start the year than with ‘Live Each Day Is If It Were Your First’ 2022, one of David Shrigley’s most recent works. Shrigley delights in satirising one of nature’s most charming animals; the duck, filtering the mundane through a sense of childlike wonder, with the use of a bright colour palette and a considered sense of humour.
Damien Hirst: Politeness, 2021
As we are often faced with the dark, often wet days in the new year, let Damien Hirst’s work, ‘Politeness’, 2021, ignite some spirit back into us this year. Part of his ‘Virtues’ series, the cherry blossom references the spontaneous joy of the coming spring; about beauty and its transient state. The frenzied blossom against the bold blue backdrop is optimistic and bright yet fragile, which Hirst parallels against our own lives, encouraging us to always get the most out of it.
Baldur Helgason: Banana, 2020
The mischievous cartoon man; serving as Helgason’s avatar, draws you in instantly. Combining elements of caricature and art history, the perpetually smiling man and banana is both childlike and comedic, with his oversized puppy-dog eyes and ‘smiling’ banana.
Harland Miller: Tonight We Make History, 2018
In this iconic rendition of a Penguin classic, Harland Miller inserts his own fictitious and witty titles and explores the psychological implications of colour with the various backdrops. The bright yellow background gives this work a cheerful light hearted air, combined with Miller’s tongue-in-cheek sense of humour. You can’t help but smile when looking at it.
Keith Haring: Pop Shop V, 1989
The fluorescent figuration of this work, with its bold lines, vivid colours and dynamic poses brings together some of Keith Haring’s most famous iconography. In 1986, Haring opened Pop Shop, seeing the boutique as a primary extension of his work. We see the angel-like mermaid blessing the dolphins below, a beautiful motif to Haring’s experimentation with spirituality. Thus these early experiments resulted in a style instantly recognisable for their originality and playfulness.
