Simeon Barclay
{{Short description|British artist}}
Simeon Barclay (born 1975){{Cite web |title=Simeon Barclay |url=https://artcollection.dcms.gov.uk/person/barclay-simeon/ |access-date=2025-01-25 |website=Government Art Collection |language=en-GB}} is a British multi-media artist. Born in Huddersfield, he studied at Leeds Metropolitan University, and Goldsmiths College in London.
Barclay's work includes mediums such as live performance, sculpture, painting, and neons. It addresses topics including gender expectations, race, unemployment, and British working class masculinity, and has been exhibited at venues including Cubitt Gallery, South London Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and the Institute of Contemporary Arts.
Early life and education
Barclay was born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire in 1975. While studying art in night school, he worked in manufacturing. In 2010 he received his degree from Leeds Metropolitan University, and he subsequently graduated from Goldsmiths College in London in 2014.
Career
Barclay works in various mediums including live performance,{{Cite web |last=Khela |first=Ajeet |date=2025-01-22 |title=Simeon Barclay Grapples with British Working-Class Masculinity |url=https://www.frieze.com/article/simeon-barclay-the-ruin-2025-review |access-date=2025-01-25 |website=Frieze |language=en}} sculpture, painting,{{Cite journal |last=Correy |first=Amie |date=2022 |title=Simeon Barclay: In The Name Of The Father |journal=Art Monthly |issue=461 |pages=24–25}} and neons. His work explores ideas of belonging, gender expectations, race, unemployment, and British working class masculinity.
Barclay's first solo exhibition in London was held at Cubitt Gallery in 2016.{{Cite web |last=Epps |first=Philomena |date=2016-11-01 |title=Simeon Barclay |url=https://www.artforum.com/events/cubitt-gallery-studios-education-225506/ |access-date=2025-01-25 |website=Artforum |language=en-US}} The next year he exhibited a show, The Hero Wears Clay Shoes, at Tate Britain.{{Cite web |date=2021-09-13 |title=Simeon Barclay on exclusion, Black mythology and Britain's past |url=https://theface.com/culture/simeon-barclay-englands-lost-camelot-exhibition-art-culture |access-date=2025-01-25 |website=The Face |language=en-gb}} In 2020 his work was included in the British Art Show 9.{{Cite news |last=Spence |first=Rachel |date=2022-02-21 |title=British Art Show 9 finds healing in troubled times |url=https://www.ft.com/content/af8004e9-86f8-4f5b-b99b-d41421d5ff23 |access-date=2025-01-25 |work=Financial Times}}
Barclay's 2021 show, England’s Lost Camelot, focused on themes of black political resistance and folklore.
His show In The Name Of The Father was exhibited at South London Gallery in 2022.{{Cite web |last=Elliott |first=Martha |date=2022-10-01 |title=Two South London Gallery shows explore selfhood and subcultures |url=https://www.wallpaper.com/art/notions-of-britishness-south-london-gallery |access-date=2025-01-25 |website=wallpaper.com |language=en}} Eddy Frankel, Art & Culture Editor for Time Out magazine, wrote that the exhibition works to make the viewer feel the sense of alienation and exclusion that Barclay experienced growing up black in the north of England.{{Cite news |last=Frankel |first=Eddy |title=Simeon Barclay: In The Name of the Father at South London Gallery review |url=https://www.timeout.com/london/art/simeon-barclay-in-the-name-of-the-father |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20240911110617/https://www.timeout.com/london/art/simeon-barclay-in-the-name-of-the-father |archive-date=2024-09-11 |access-date=2025-01-25 |work=Time Out London |language=en-GB}} It included the work Pittu Pithu Pitoo, described by Art Monthly as "a giant pile of boulders" that obstructs the view into the exhibition. When the work was included in London's Sculpture in the City in 2023, Frankel described the "sculpture of a chicken on its own little mini-mountain" as symbolising being an outsider, and a character on the periphery that isn't accepted.{{Cite web |last=Eddy |first=Frankel |date=2023-07-06 |title=The City of London is now full of awesome new public sculptures |url=https://www.timeout.com/london/news/the-city-is-full-of-awesome-new-public-sculptures-070623 |website=Time Out}} The work was unveiled as a new addition to Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 2024. Its form and title reference an Indian game, involving a ball and a pile of seven stones, played by the artist in his youth.{{Cite web |date=2024-10-08 |title=Ideal for autumn walks - Yorkshire Sculpture Park unveils new outdoor artwork |url=https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/whats-on/things-to-do/ideal-for-autumn-walks-yorkshire-sculpture-park-unveils-new-outdoor-artwork-4815280 |access-date=2025-01-26 |website=Yorkshire Post |language=en}}
Barclay's first performance work, The Ruin, took place at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts in January 2025. It was commissioned by the Roberts Institute of Art. Featuring Barclay's spoken words, plus musical accompaniment from horns and percussion, it dealt with the artist's memories of growing up in 1980s Huddersfield. Frieze magazine described it as adding "visceral intimacy and vulnerability" to Barclay's practice.