Have you seen the gorilla in the grounds of Waddesdon Manor? He’s been there for six years, standing tall surveying the gardens with a determined jaw and a large fish, a salmon tucked under his arm. He looks a little over life-sized to me — although how should I know? You’d have to ask David Attenborough for that.

It is actually a bronze sculpture entitled A Couple of Differences Between Thinking and Feeling by British artist Angus Fairhurst, and has been a permanent artwork at Waddesdon since 2003 when it was acquired. Now though, you can also see the maquette version of it — plus other gorilla maquettes in curious poses — in a small retrospective of Fairhurst’s work, in a brand new contemporary art space at the Stables at Waddesdon, that runs until October 25.

Although the exhibition has only a couple of weeks left, I mention it because it’s an interesting show and the new light-filled gallery is a wonderful discovery. Angus Fairhurst, who died last year, was born in Kent in 1966, was at London’s Goldsmiths College in the late 1980s, and was an influential member of the group of artists known as the YBA generation (Young British Artists), gaining notoriety after the Freeze exhibition in London’s Docklands in 1988.

The work displayed includes maquettes and collages — elaborate layered torn-up magazine pages — plus drawings, many of them humorous (I loved the one with gorilla feeding chips to the fish), and a large billboard that’s the centrepiece of the show. Its title tells you all you need to know. Billboard, Everything but the Outline Blacked-in: a sketchy white line outlining Sophie’s erotic pose is all that’s left of the infamous Opium advert of Sophie Dahl once the detail is obliterated.

Fairhurst’s work has a lightness of touch that’s very appealing. It’s an interesting amalgam of lightness and darkness, presence and absence, stripping away or negation and creation; a thread of black humour runs through it, expressing the intrinsically empty nature of commercial life. He seems to have a thing about gorillas and bananas. A large banana, a black one that looks like it’s been in the fridge too long, is outside; visitors have used it as a bench all summer.

Do try to go. It’s a good show. For details and opening times see: www.waddesdon.org.uk.