Colonel William A. Phillips

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]

"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]

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.[10]

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.[11] These dualities further position her artistic process between the handcrafted and industrially produced, as well as the natural and man-made.[12]

Selected exhibitions

Public collections

  • Arts Council Collection[18]
  • British Council[19]
  • Moderna Museet[20]
  • National Galleries Scotland[21]
  • Mudam, Luxembourg[22]

Awards

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[14]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Barclay, Claire (2009). Openwide. The Fruitmarket Gallery. ISBN 9780947912642. OCLC 811321128.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ^ Shannon, Liz. "Claire Barclay: Openwide". list.co.uk. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  3. ^ "Claire Barclay". belowanothersky.org. Archived from the original on 10 May 2018. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  4. ^ a b c Brown, Katrina M.; Tufnell, Rob (2001). Here + Now - Scottish Art 1990-2001. Dundee Contemporary Arts. p. 36. ISBN 0-9535178-7-X.
  5. ^ a b Sherwin, Skye (2 September 2010). "Artist of the week 103: Claire Barclay". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  6. ^ Barclay, Claire (2011). Claire Barclay : shadow spans. Ogg, Kirsty., Whitechapel Art Gallery. London: Whitechapel Gallery. p. 47. ISBN 9780854881918. OCLC 752814701.
  7. ^ "Art Now: Claire Barclay: Half-light". Tate. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  8. ^ "Stephen Friedman Gallery - News - 'Claire Barclay: Yield Point' At Tramway, Glasgow, Scotland". www.stephenfriedman.com. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  9. ^ "Claire Barclay, Deep Spoils". www.missiongallery.co.uk. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  10. ^ Tate. "Art Now: Claire Barclay: Half-light – Exhibition at Tate Britain | Tate". Tate. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  11. ^ Sharratt, Chris (7 March 2017). "Claire Barclay". Frieze (187). Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  12. ^ Sherwin, Skye (2 September 2010). "Artist of the week 103: Claire Barclay". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  13. ^ "Overlap Exhibition at Glasgow Print Studio - Claire Barclay". Retrieved 24 May 2018.
  14. ^ a b c Funktion - Dysfunktion - Function - Dysfunction : Kunstzentrum Glasgow : contemporary art from Glasgow : Claire Barclay, Martin Boyce, Nick Evans, Nicolas Party, Ciara Phillips, Mary Redmond. Todd, Jacqueline., Rehkopf, Kurt., Zirden, Sylvia., Neues Museum (Nuremberg, Germany). Nürnberg: Verlag für Moderne Kunst. 2013. p. 47. ISBN 9783869844817. OCLC 873822785.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  15. ^ "CLAIRE BARCLAY". Glasgow International. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  16. ^ "Claire Barclay, Deep Spoils". www.missiongallery.co.uk. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
  17. ^ "Skiffing | Edinburgh College of Art". www.eca.ed.ac.uk. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
  18. ^ "Barclay, Claire | Arts Council Collection". www.artscouncilcollection.org.uk. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
  19. ^ "Claire Barclay | Artists | Collection | British Council − Visual Arts". visualarts.britishcouncil.org. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
  20. ^ "Moderna Museet - Collection". sis.modernamuseet.se. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
  21. ^ "Claire Barclay". www.nationalgalleries.org. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
  22. ^ "Claire Barclay". Mudam. Retrieved 7 November 2020.

External links