Overview
In her sculptures and installations, Claire Barclay explores different modes of making related to craft and industrial production, arranging common and precious materials in an intuitive, poetic way.
In her sculptures and installations, Claire Barclay explores different modes of making related to craft and industrial production, arranging common and precious materials in an intuitive, poetic way.
Claire Barclay was born in 1968 in Paisley, Scotland. She now lives and works in Glasgow, Scotland.
Barclay is a leading figure in a generation of graduates from the Glasgow School of Art in the 1990s, a group of young artists studying in the city who rose to the fore of the contemporary art world. She has since been the subject of numerous solo presentations including Tate Britain, London (2004); Camden Arts Centre, London (2008); MUDAM, Luxembourg (2009); Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (2010) and Tramway, Glasgow (2017). She represented Scotland as part of the Scottish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, Italy in 2003.
Barclay's hybrid sculptures are centred on the physical and the psychological tensions that exist between contrasting materials. They are at once recognisable and foreign, acting as a surreal reflection of the world around us by toying with formal associations. One of the key influences in her working practice is an ongoing fascination with historical and anthropological artefacts.
