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.
Simeon Barclay (b.1975, Huddersfield, UK) received his BA from Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds in 2010 and an MFA from Goldsmiths College, London in 2014. He has exhibited both nationally and internationally with major solo exhibitions including: At Home, Everywhere and Nowhere, Workplace and Gathering, London, UK (2023), In the Name of the Father, South London Gallery, London, UK (2022); Whose Voice? Hard to Reach!, Touchstones, Rochdale, UK (2022); England’s Lost Camelot, Workplace Gallery, London, UK (2021); Bus2move, The Turnpike, Leigh, UK (2020); Liferoom, Holden Gallery, Manchester, UK (2019); Bus2move, The Tetley, Leeds, UK (2018); and ART NOW: SIMEON BARCLAY 'The Hero Wears Clay Shoes’, TATE Britain, London, UK (2017).
Group exhibitions of his work include: Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, Ireland (2025); Sculpture In The City 12th Edition, London, UK (2023); Chester Contemporary, curated by Ryan Gander, Chester, UK (2023); Fruitmarket, Edinburgh, Scotland (2023), Victoria Miro, London, UK (2022); Workplace, London, UK (2022); Somerset House, London, UK (2021); British Art Show 9, Aberdeen, Manchester and Wolverhampton, UK (2021); Southbank Centre, London, UK (2020); Galerie Kandlhofer, Vienna, Austria (2018); Rodolpe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium (2017); Arcadia Missa, New York, US (2017) and W139, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2015).
Barclay has been a member of the Arts Council Acquisition Committee since 2021 and a member of the advisory committee for the Freelands Foundation since 2018. He completed a major commission for Deutsche Bank’s London headquarters in 2024 and The Robert’s Institute with performances at ICA, London and The Hepworth, Wakefield in 2025. His work is currently on display as part of Art Outdoors at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
His works is held in public collections including the Arts Council Collection, London, UK; Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK; Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, UK and Whitworth Art Gallery Collection, Manchester, UK.
