LONDON.-Angus Fairhurst committed suicide Saturday during a walk in a remote part of Scotland. Angus Fairhurst was an English artist working in installation, photography and video. He was one of the Young British Artists (YBAs).
Fairhurst was born in Pembury, Kent. He studied at Canterbury Art College 1985-1986 and graduated in 1989 in Fine Art at Goldsmiths' College, where he was in the same year as Damien Hirst. The two became close friends and collaborated on many projects. Fairhurst was also for several years the partner and sometime-collaborator of Sarah Lucas.
Fairhurst's work was often characterised by visual distortion and practical jokes. In 1991 he did a piece in which he networked together the phones of leading contemporary art dealers in London so that they could only talk to each other a witty and telling remark that the art world is often only interested in speaking to itself.
Angus Fairhurst exhibited nationally and internationally after graduating from Goldsmiths. Exhibitions include Freeze and Some Went Mad and Some Ran Away, "Brilliant!" at the Walker Art Center and "Apocalypse" at the Royal Academy of Art in 2001. A 2004 exhibition In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida was held at the Tate Gallery with Hirst and Lucas. He exhibited at Sadie Coles HQ in London.