Angus Fairhurst was born in Kent, England in 1966 and studied at Goldsmiths College in London, where he met and worked with Gary Hume, Sarah Lucas and Damien Hirst. Together they organized and took part in the 1988 exhibition, Freeze, for which the group attracted great acclaim.

In the years between Freeze and the artist’s suicide in March 2008, Fairhurst was known for a diverse body of work to include painting, sculpture and installation. His work was exhibited worldwide including In the darkest hour there may be light: Works from Damien Hirst's Murderme Collection, Serpentine Gallery, London, 2006; In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, Tate Britain, London, 2004; Century City: Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis, Tate Modern, London, 2001; Apocalypse, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2000; The Anagrammatical Body, Neue Landesmuseum, Graz, Austria; Brilliant, Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis, 1995.