 (b. 1975, in Huddersfield, UK) received his BA from Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds in 2010 and an MFA from Goldsmiths College, London in 2014.  In 2020 Barclay was selected to be included in the British Art Show 9. He has exhibited both nationally and internationally including at Southbank Centre, Tate Britain, South London Gallery, London; Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool; Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Workplace Foundation, Gateshead; Holden Gallery, Manchester; The Tetley, Leeds; Cubitt Gallery, London; The Bluecoat, Liverpool; Jerwood Space, London; Galerie Lisa Kandlhofer, Vienna; Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels; Arcadia Missa, New York and W139, Amsterdam. His work is in the Arts Council Collection, London; Zabludowicz Collection, London; Manchester Art Gallery and Whitworth Art Gallery collection, Manchester. 

Simeon Barclay draws upon a rich vein of pop cultural sources, producing works that activate complex cultural histories, whilst exploring the ways in which we navigate identity, both imposed or self-curated. Combining a diverse range of media, Barclay creates reductive, sophisticated works that engage with aspects of aesthetics, British culture, subjectivity and memory. 

After spending his formative years working in the manufacturing industry in the North of England, Barclay would attend night school, eventually obtaining an MFA from Goldsmiths University, London (UK). As a youth he became preoccupied with fashion, citing its vitality as a conduit for both embellishment and resistance. Fashion’s social and economic contexts were also relevant, providing a dichotomy between the artist’s fascination with Vogue magazine, a periodical whose glamour and theatricality provided aspirational imagery, and the stark contrast that was his everyday reality and life working in a factory. These insights would later foster the impetus for his involvement in various subcultural movements whose symbolic and alternative modes of expression defined themselves in opposition to social norms. 

This personal development together with an understanding of wider social concerns around the rhetoric of belonging, and the place of the diaspora as stakeholder in the shaping of an evolving British culture, have contributed to Barclay’s sharp awareness of the psychological, socio-cultural and political contexts that inform lived experience. These are formally articulated through a complex interplay of the sonic, collage, an archival approach to the appropriated image, sculpture, video, objects and the re-interpretation of the gallery space through installation. Barclay’s background in industry directly feeds into his work, addressing narrow constructions of masculinity as well as informing the glossy surfaces and use of industrial fabrication techniques throughout his work. The seemingly disparate and contradictory influences allow Barclay to expand his research examining alternative narratives as well as addressing the complexity of inheritance, aspiration and desire.

A large sculpture of a boulder with a cockerel on the top situated in a square surrounded by glass buildings 

London

Sculpture In The City

External exhibition

Sculpture in the City

close up image of a model at a Celine fashion show, the model has dreadlocks and is wearing dark glasses

Installation views of Simeon Barclay's exhibition 'At Home, Everywhere and Nowhere'

WORKPLACE

Commercial Gallery

At Home, Everywhere and Nowhere

A cropped image of a painting by Sooim Jeong: Synchronised, 2019 Oil on canvas 100 x 80 cm

Installation shots of 'Decoy' - a group exhibition of painting and sculpture at Workplace | Newcastle - including artwork by Cristian Avram, Eric Bainbridge, Simeon Barclay, Rachel Lancaster, Sooim Jeong and Miko Veldkamp

Newcastle

Decoy

A photograph looking down at Mortimer Street, Fitzrovia, taken on a sunny afternoon, whilst the streets were quiet. 

Installation views of 'Kaleidoscope' the inaugural group exhibition at Workplace in 50 Mortimer Street, Fitzrovia, London.

Kaleidoscope

a detail image of 'Chips on My Shoulders' a brightly coloured collage by Simeon Barclay. Comic strips, pop culture imagery and bar codes are overlaid to create a colourful montage.  

Installation images of Simeon Barclay's exhibition at Workplace in London, artworks, sculpture and video are cast in filtered blue light of a night club

England's Lost Camelot

an image of Pop Pose, 2023 by Simeon Barclay, consisting of Black ACM board, vinyl, metal, oil and acrylic paint, chain, replica Great Helm, children’s unicorn bicycle helmet, acrylic on canvas, plastic rose

Black acrylic painting with image and text and a toy knights helmet with a unicorn cycle helmet

Pop Pose

Photographe of  ɘɔnɘɔonni Ɉɘɘwƨ llɘwɘяɒʇ, 2023 by Simeon Barclay, consiting of a Metal fence, neon, plastic, metal bin holders, metal fixings. The black metal railings are lit by the purple glow of the neon text. 

Photograph of ɘɔnɘɔonni Ɉɘɘwƨ llɘwɘяɒʇ, 2023 by Simeon Barclay, consiting of a Metal fence, neon, plastic, metal bin holders, metal fixings. The black metal railings are lit by the purple glow of the neon text. 

ɘɔnɘɔonni ƚɘɘwƨ llɘwɘɿɒʇ

Photo of Buff #1, 2023 by Simeon Barclay consisting of Neon, metal, fixings, children’s stuffed toys, bull bar. 

Buff #1

A portrait of Simeon Barclay holding a transparent overhead projector acrylic that says 'plus so much more' backwards in marker pen in front of his face.

Simeon Barclay

Related Exhibitions