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. Central to her practice is a sustained exploration of materials and space. "While there is always a concept behind the work its actual form comes out of the 'play' with materials and my response to them"

Early life and education

Claire Barclay received a Master of Fine Arts from the

Glasgow School of Art The Glasgow School of Art (GSA; gd, Sgoil-ealain Ghlaschu) is a higher education art school based in Glasgow, Scotland, offering undergraduate degrees, post-graduate awards (both taught and research-led), and PhDs in architecture, fine art, and ...

, where she focused on

environmental art Environmental art is a range of artistic practices encompassing both historical approaches to nature in art and more recent ecological and politically motivated types of works. Environmental art has evolved away from formal concerns, for example ...

. She graduated in 1993 with an MA.

Career

Barclay's first solo exhibition was at

Transmission Gallery Transmission Gallery is an artist-run space in Glasgow. It was established in 1983 by graduates of Glasgow School of Art. It primarily shows the work of young early career artists and is run by a changing voluntary committee of six people. Among ...

, Glasgow in 1994. In 2003, Barclay represented Scotland in the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

. Her work was the focus of a solo exhibition at the

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...

in 2004. In 2009 she had a solo exhibition at the

Fruitmarket Gallery The Fruitmarket Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland. Since its opening in 1974, the gallery has become part of the Scottish contemporary art scene. After a period of closure to undergo a significant renovation, the ga ...

, which documented significant works created by Barclay over the previous 12 years, alongside newly-commissioned installations. 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, and the work made here amongst others were reworked and adapted at

Mission Gallery Mission Gallery is a contemporary visual and applied arts gallery based in Swansea. The gallery hosts contemporary art, painting, installation, photography and craft. Formerly St Nicholas Church for seamen, Mission Gallery was designed by Benjam ...

Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea ( cy, links=no, Dinas a Sir Abertawe). The city is the twenty-fifth largest in ...

, in 2018

Themes

Situated within realms of the domestic, Barclay's work juxtaposes the reified space of the gallery with that of the everyday. 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.

Style

Barclay creates large-scale installations, often made ''in situ'' and in response to the spaces in which they are shown. Her practice is also deeply rooted in process and

craftsmanship Workmanship is a human attribute relating to knowledge and skill at performing a task. Workmanship is also a quality imparted to a product. The type of work may include the creation of handcrafts, art, writing, machinery and other products. Workman ...

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

Selected exhibitions

* 'Nettverk Glasgow', Museet for Samtidskunst,

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

, 1998 * Zenomap'. 50.

, 2003 * 'Art now: Claire Barclay. Half-light',

, 2004 * 'Claire Barclay: silver gilt', Stephen Friedman Gallery,

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, 2005 * 'Claire Barclay: shifting ground',

Camden Arts Centre Camden Art Centre (formerly known as Hampstead Arts Centre until 1967 and Camden Arts Centre until 2020) is a contemporary art gallery in the London Borough of Camden, England that hosts temporary exhibitions and educational outreach projects. T ...

, London, 2008 * 'Claire Barclay: openwide', The Fruitmarket Gallery,

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, 2009 * 'Claire Barclay: Pale Heights',

MUDAM The Grand Duke Jean Museum of Modern Art (french: Musée d'art moderne Grand-Duc Jean), abbreviated to Mudam, is a museum of modern art in Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg. The museum stands on the site of the old Fort Thüngen, on the so ...

, Luxenburg, 2009 * 'Claire Barclay: Shadow Spans',

Whitechapel Gallery The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery in Whitechapel on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The original building, designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, opened in 1901 as one of the fir ...

, 2010 * 'Overlap - Claire Barclay',

Glasgow Print Studio Glasgow Print Studio is an arts organisation situated in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1972, Glasgow Print Studio is an organisation with charitable status that exists to encourage and promote the art of printmaking; it is supported by the Creat ...

, 2010 * 'Abstract Possible', Museo Tamayo,

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

, 2011 *'Bright Bodies',

Kelvinhall , style = Glasgow Subway , image = Glasgow_Subway_(29386239324).jpg , address = Partick, Glasgow , country = Scotland , coordinates = , owned = SPT , operator = SPT , platforms = 2 (island) , tracks = 2 , structure = Underground , ...

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

, 2016 *'Yield Point', Tramway Gallery, Glasgow, 2017 *'Deep Spoils',

, Swansea, 2018 *'Skiffing',

Edinburgh College of Art Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histor ...

, 2019

Public collections

* Arts Council Collection * British Council * Moderna Museet * National Galleries Scotland * Mudam, Luxembourg

Awards

* Artist in Residence, 200 Gertrude Street,

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, 1997 * Three Year AHRB Fellowship, Glasgow School of Art, 2000 *

Paul Hamlyn Foundation Paul Hamlyn Foundation is a registered charity, and a company limited by guarantee which has been established in its current form since 2004, succeeding an earlier incarnation that was founded in 1987, which itself formalised established philanthr ...

Artist's Award, 2007 *

The Hospital Club The Hospital Club, later renamed the H Club, was a members' club for people in the creative industries in London, England. It housed a television studio (h Studio), recording studio, screening room, live performance space, restaurant, lounges an ...

Creative Award for Art, 2008 * Residency, Statens Vaerksteder for Kunst,

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, 2011 * Residency,

The Banff Centre Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, formerly known as The Banff Centre (and previously The Banff Centre for Continuing Education), located in Banff, Alberta, was established in 1933 as the Banff School of Drama. It was granted full autonomy as ...

, Banff, 2013 *Residency,

, 2019

Publications

* 'Claire Barclay: Ideal Pursuits', exhibition catalogue,

Dundee Contemporary Arts Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) is an art centre in Dundee, Scotland, with two contemporary art galleries, a two-screen cinema, a print studio, a learning and public engagement programme, a shop and a café bar. The director of DCA is Beth Bate ...

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

, 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

References

External links

Claire Barclay at Stephen Friedman Gallery

Claire Barclay website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barclay, Claire 1968 births Living people Scottish contemporary artists British printmakers Alumni of the Glasgow School of Art Scottish women artists People from Paisley, Renfrewshire