Martin Firrell
Martin Firrell | |
|---|---|
 The Artful Dodger Crossed with an Explosion in a Sequin Factory, self-portrait on red field, 2015 | |
| Born | 4 April 1963 |
| Known for | text-based, socially engaged public artworks on billboards around the world |
| Notable work | The Question Mark Inside, St Paul's Cathedral; 4 Tenets for Europe |
| Style | political and humanist art |
| Movement | Protest Art |
| Spouse | William Jackson (2013 – present) |
| Patrons | Stevie Spring, Simon Channing Williams, Justin Cochrane |
| Website | www |
Martin Firrell (born 4 April 1963) is a British public artist. Firrell is known for text-based public artworks on billboards around the world. He uses public art to campaign for greater social equality.
He is one of a trio of artists, with Jenny Holzer and Barbara Kruger, notable for socially engaged public art practice where text is foundational and central to that practice.
His texts address LGBT+ equality, the women's movement, feminism and gender equality; and universal human rights. The artist's aim is "to make the world more humane".
Firrell's billboards often resemble advertising because he redeploys advertising's techniques to achieve artistic-activist ends. Firrell has made more artworks expressly for the billboard medium than any other living artist. This wholesale colonisation of advertising’s oldest and boldest format represents a shift in Fine Art's centre of gravity and makes Firrell a particularly apposite artist for the 21st century. His work has been summarised as "art as debate".