a 33-FEET-high thumbs up by one of Scotland's most popular contemporary artists and a skeletal horse will adorn the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square.

David Shrigley's ­exaggerated thumb will be shown on the plinth in London in 2016, a year after a riderless horse designed by Hans Haake.

Shrigley, a Glasgow-based artist whose pictures and sculptures are known for their mordant humour, said landing the commission made up for not winning the 2013 Turner Prize, for which he was nominated.

He said his work, titled Really Good, which features the giant out-stretched thumb, was "slightly satirical but also serious at the same time".

Haacke's design, Gift Horse, is intended as a comment on the equestrian statue of William IV ­originally planned for the plinth.

Tied to the horse's front leg is an electronic ribbon displaying the information ticker of the London Stock Exchange.

The horse is derived from an etching by George Stubbs, the English painter whose works are represented in the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square.

Really Good will be cast so that it has the same dark patina as the other statues in Trafalgar Square, although the thumb is disproportionately long.

The two artworks will be the 10th and 11th to appear on the Fourth Plinth since the commissioning programme, which is now funded by the Mayor of London and supported by Arts Council England, began in 1998.

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, said: "The commissioning group has chosen two very different sculptures to go on the Fourth Plinth, with each being wryly enigmatic in their own way."

Shrigley was born in Macclesfield in 1968, attended Glasgow School of Art and lives and works in the Scottish city.

Haacke, born in 1936, lives and works in New York.