b. 1966, Kent, England; lived and worked in London, U.K., d. 2008, Scotland.

Angus Fairhurst's work is often characterized by visual distortion and practical jokes but always displays a conceptual and formal complexity that deliberately eschew a ‘signature style’. His work encompasses a wide array of media, including video, photography, painting, collage, animation and installation. He is noted for sculptures of gorillas and perhaps best known for the performative installation Gallery Connections (1991-1996), for which he irreverently rewired the telephones of leading contemporary art dealers in London so that their employees could only talk to each other; recording their confused conversations that ensued. Characteristic of his interest in tackling questions of self-awareness and what it means to be an artist, his work also signals universal and poignant questions of life, society and the individual experience. Fairhurst emerged in the early 1990s as a central figure in the group of artists known as the YBAs. He co-organized the original Freeze exhibition and is often cited as a confidant to his artist friends, a major influence on his contemporaries and an important collaborator to many of his peers.

Angus Fairhurst's projects included Gambler, Building One, London (1991); Some Went Mad, Some Ran Away, Serpentine Gallery (1994); Brilliant! New Art From London, Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis (1995); Apocalypse, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2000); Casino 2001, SMAK, Ghent (2001); and In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (with Sarah Lucas and Damien Hirst, Tate Britain, London (2004). Fairhurst had significant one-person exhibitions including This Does Not Last More Than One Second, Spacex Gallery, Exeter (2001), and The Foundation, Ursula Blickle Stiftung, Kraichtal, Germany and Kunsthalle St. Gallen. From 2009-11, a retrospective of his work travelled between Arnolfini, Bristol; Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire; M Museum, Leuven, Belgium; and Westfälischer Kunstverein, Muenster, Germany.

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