Claire Barclay
Scottish artist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Claire Barclay (born 1968) is a Scottish artist. Her artistic practice uses a number of traditional media that include installation, sculpture and printmaking, but it also expands to encapsulate a diverse array of craft techniques.[1] Central to her practice is a sustained exploration of materials and space.[2][3]
Claire Barclay | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1968 (age 57–58) |
| Alma mater | Glasgow School of Art |
| Style | installation, sculpture and printmaking |
"While there is always a concept behind the work its actual form comes out of the 'play' with materials and my response to them"[4]
Early life and education
Claire Barclay received a Master of Fine Arts from the Glasgow School of Art, where she focused on environmental art.[5] She graduated in 1993 with an MA.[6][4]
Career
Barclay's first solo exhibition was at Transmission Gallery, Glasgow in 1994.[4] In 2003, Barclay represented Scotland in the Venice Biennale.[5] Her work was the focus of a solo exhibition at the Tate Britain in 2004.[7] In 2009 she had a solo exhibition at the Fruitmarket Gallery, which documented significant works created by Barclay over the previous 12 years, alongside newly-commissioned installations.[1] She has had several solo exhibitions at Stephen Friedman Gallery, London. In 2017 she showed new large scale sculptural work at Tramway Gallery in Glasgow,[8] and the work made here amongst others were reworked and adapted at Mission Gallery, Swansea, in 2018.[9] She was elected to the Royal Scottish Academy in 2024.[10]
Themes
Situated within realms of the domestic, Barclay's work juxtaposes the reified space of the gallery with that of the everyday.[1] The objects present within her installations allude to dichotomies between function and dysfunction; subsequently, this imbues them with qualities of both the familiar and strange, simultaneously imparting them with an elusory nature.[11]
Style
Barclay creates large-scale installations, often made in situ and in response to the spaces in which they are shown.[1] Her practice is also deeply rooted in process and craftsmanship; accordingly, her installations include an array of materials that oscillate between those associated with mechanization and those associated with the domestic: steel, cast-concrete, machined aluminium, rubber, brass mesh, ceramic, leather, canvas and printed fabric.[12] These dualities further position her artistic process between the handcrafted and industrially produced, as well as the natural and man-made.[13]
Selected exhibitions
- 'Nettverk Glasgow', Museet for Samtidskunst, Oslo, 1998
- Zenomap'. 50. Venice Biennale, 2003
- 'Art now: Claire Barclay. Half-light', Tate Britain, 2004
- 'Claire Barclay: silver gilt', Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, 2005
- 'Claire Barclay: shifting ground', Camden Arts Centre, London, 2008
- 'Claire Barclay: openwide', The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, 2009
- 'Claire Barclay: Pale Heights', MUDAM, Luxenburg, 2009
- 'Claire Barclay: Shadow Spans', Whitechapel Gallery, 2010
- 'Overlap - Claire Barclay', Glasgow Print Studio, 2010[14]
- 'Abstract Possible', Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, 2011[15]
- 'Bright Bodies', Kelvinhall, Glasgow, 2016[16]
- 'Yield Point', Tramway Gallery, Glasgow, 2017
- 'Deep Spoils', Mission Gallery, Swansea, 2018[17]
- 'Skiffing', Edinburgh College of Art, 2019[18]
Public collections
Awards
- Artist in Residence, 200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne, 1997
- Three Year AHRB Fellowship, Glasgow School of Art, 2000
- Paul Hamlyn Foundation Artist's Award, 2007
- The Hospital Club Creative Award for Art, 2008
- Residency, Statens Vaerksteder for Kunst, Copenhagen, 2011
- Residency, The Banff Centre, Banff, 2013[15]
- Residency, Edinburgh College of Art, 2019
Publications
- 'Claire Barclay: Ideal Pursuits', exhibition catalogue, Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee, 2003
- 'Claire Barclay: Fault on the Right Size', exhibition catalogue, Kunstverein Braunschweig, 2007
- 'Claire Barclay: openwide', exhibition catalogue, The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, 2009
- 'Claire Barclay: Shadow Spans', Whitechapel Gallery, 2010[15]