Born in Kent, studied at Judd School and started his artistic training at Canterbury Art School in 1985. After graduating Canterbury, Fairhurst went onto study at Goldsmiths College in the same year as Damien Hirst. Fairhurst’s work gained notice in his exhibitions with his fellow students. Along with Damien Hirst, whom he had become close friends with, Fairhurst helped organise the Freeze Show in 1988 which showcased over 16 Goldsmith’s students works. His sense of humour came out in his pieces, such as his work in 1991 where he networked the phone lines of contemporary art dealers in London so that they could only speak with each other. Fairhurst was a versatile artist, working with video, paint, photography and sculpture. After graduating Goldsmiths, his work really took off and he was soon found in exhibitions all over the world even holding an exhibition with Hirst at the Tate Gallery in 2004. Sadly he began battling depression and on the last day of his third solo show held at Sadie Coles HQ in London in 2008 he took his life.