ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Stuart Semple is a multidisciplinary British artist whose practice spans painting, performance, internet art, and installation. His works adopt a sociological lens to explore themes of youth politics, mass culture, image, technology, and anxiety. Often activist in nature, his broader projects frequently strive for fairness, equality, and access, particularly within the arts.
Semple has enjoyed numerous solo exhibitions worldwide and has presented projects at international institutions, including the Denver Art Museum, The Whitworth, Barbican, Hong Kong Arts Center, and Dulwich Picture Gallery. He is the author of “Make Art or Die Trying,” published by Quarto. Semple regularly speaks on art and mental health, with appearances at Oxford University, The Southbank Centre, Frieze, RCA, and the ICA
Selected works:
Artist Job Centre
Installation in London during lockdown, 2020
I Should Be Crying But I Just Can’t Let It Show, 2018
spraypaint, foam and steel installed in Denver, 2018
My Sonic Youth installation view, Fabien Castanier Gallery
Los Angeles, 2015
Angel of the Mourning
Digital print, spraypaint, watercolour, vinyl, collage and oil pastel on Saunders Waterford Paper 120 x 150 cm, 2015
EVERYBODY SEES YOU’RE BLOWN APART
Acrylic, charcoal, chalk, vinyl and paintmarker on canvas 220 x 220 x 7cm, 2009
PINK (multiple), 2016
Open edition Plastic jar, powdered paint & sticker 4.5 x 6 x 4.5 cm 2016 onwards
A POUNDING OUTSIDE POUNDLAND (or how my nose got its wonk)
Acrylic & charcoal on canvas 240 x 170 x 7 cm, 2010
My Brain Hurts Like A Fucking Warehouse
acrylic & charcoal on canvas 120 x 120 x 7 cm, 2014
Don’t Let Me Down
acrylic & charcoal on canvas 200 x 200 x 7cm, 2013
S.C.U.M (Valerie), 2015
Digital print & gesso on cold press watercolour paper 150 x 120 cm
Real Gone Kid
acrylic, charcoal, gold and gesso on canvas 120 x 120 x 7 cm, 2014
Technicolour Hiroshima
acrylic & charcoal on canvas 200 x 200 x 7 cm, 2014
Happy Cloud
Vogue x Moncler Piazza della Scala, Milan, 2009
My Sonic Youth
installation view, Fabien Castanier Gallery, 2016
The first CUT was the deepest
acrylic on canvas 270 x 150 x 7 cm, 2013
Ding Dong (Maggie’s Dead)
laquer, fibre glass, shoes, neon on mdf 150 x 100 x 70 cm, 2009
Riders On The Storm
acrylic, charcoal, indian ink, china marker on Canvas 200 x 200 x 7cm, 2013
Freak
acrylic on foam, dimensions variable, 2012
My Sonic Youth, project space
Fabien Castanier Gallery Los Angles 2016
MY LONELINESS IS KILLING ME, 2015
Digital print, acrylic, marker, spraypaint, vinyl, graphite & india ink on cold press watercolour paper 150 x 120 cm
Dancing On My Own
vinyl, plastic, rubber, perspex, ink, spraypaint on metal 2019
YOU ARE NOT ENOUGH
Digital print, acrylic, vinyl, china marker, foil & stickers on Hahnemuhle German Etching paper 76 x 56 cm 2014
Let Forever Be
acrylic, canvas on metal dimensions variable, 2018
Knocked Up, 2008
Selected works:
Artist Job Centre
Installation in London during lockdown, 2020
I Should Be Crying But I Just Can’t Let It Show, 2018
spraypaint, foam and steel installed in Denver, 2018
My Sonic Youth installation view, Fabien Castanier Gallery
Los Angeles, 2015
Angel of the Mourning
Digital print, spraypaint, watercolour, vinyl, collage and oil pastel on Saunders Waterford Paper 120 x 150 cm, 2015
EVERYBODY SEES YOU’RE BLOWN APART
Acrylic, charcoal, chalk, vinyl and paintmarker on canvas 220 x 220 x 7cm, 2009
PINK (multiple), 2016
Open edition Plastic jar, powdered paint & sticker 4.5 x 6 x 4.5 cm 2016 onwards
A POUNDING OUTSIDE POUNDLAND (or how my nose got its wonk)
Acrylic & charcoal on canvas 240 x 170 x 7 cm, 2010
My Brain Hurts Like A Fucking Warehouse
acrylic & charcoal on canvas 120 x 120 x 7 cm, 2014
Don’t Let Me Down
acrylic & charcoal on canvas 200 x 200 x 7cm, 2013
S.C.U.M (Valerie), 2015
Digital print & gesso on cold press watercolour paper 150 x 120 cm
Real Gone Kid
acrylic, charcoal, gold and gesso on canvas 120 x 120 x 7 cm, 2014
Technicolour Hiroshima
acrylic & charcoal on canvas 200 x 200 x 7 cm, 2014
Happy Cloud
Vogue x Moncler Piazza della Scala, Milan, 2009
My Sonic Youth
installation view, Fabien Castanier Gallery, 2016
The first CUT was the deepest
acrylic on canvas 270 x 150 x 7 cm, 2013
Ding Dong (Maggie’s Dead)
laquer, fibre glass, shoes, neon on mdf 150 x 100 x 70 cm, 2009
Riders On The Storm
acrylic, charcoal, indian ink, china marker on Canvas 200 x 200 x 7cm, 2013
Freak
acrylic on foam, dimensions variable, 2012
My Sonic Youth, project space
Fabien Castanier Gallery Los Angles 2016
MY LONELINESS IS KILLING ME, 2015
Digital print, acrylic, marker, spraypaint, vinyl, graphite & india ink on cold press watercolour paper 150 x 120 cm
Dancing On My Own
vinyl, plastic, rubber, perspex, ink, spraypaint on metal 2019
YOU ARE NOT ENOUGH
Digital print, acrylic, vinyl, china marker, foil & stickers on Hahnemuhle German Etching paper 76 x 56 cm 2014
Let Forever Be
acrylic, canvas on metal dimensions variable, 2018
Knocked Up, 2008
More:
Recent exhibitions, commissions, publications and press
An Audience with Stuart Semple at The Pod – Coventry
Catch Stuart in conversation with artist Martin Green at The Pod in Coventry on 2nd July. Stuart will be talking about his life and work alongside his plans for new artworks that he will be exhibiting across three sites in Coventry this October. The event is...
Rolls-Royce – ‘Little Ghost’ artist car project
Stuart Semple 'Little Ghost' art car for Rolls-Royce 'Ghost Stories' project. 12 leading artists including: Gavin Turk, Charming Baker, Stuart Semple, Richard Wentworth, Mark Wallinger , Sam...
Happy Clouds come to Geelong Ater Dark
Manchester discussion, the fearful gift – the relationship between mental health & creativity
Join Matt Haig and special guests Stuart Semple, MJ Hyland, Anneleise Mackintosh for an evening of discussion and debate around creativity, mental health and his new book, Reasons to Stay Alive. With music from Karima Francis. Reasons to Stay Alive follows Matt Haig's...
Stuart Semple X Placebo artwork for C.A.L.M
SHOULDERS TOES AND KNEES One-off digital print on Hahnemuhle German Etching paper 50 x 50 cm Stuart Semple, 2015 (Signed by the artist and the band) The above artwork is a very special totally one-off print I made from the Placebo imagery to raise money for...
UN International Day of Happiness – Happy Clouds
It's the UN International Day of Happiness Today To me that's something that's really important. I think the level of happiness that a culture has is really the true measure of it's success. That's not about averages, the average human being having a smile on his or...
Now open: Ghosts feat. Stuart Semple at Fine Art Society London
Stuart has created a series of new artworks for the group exhibition 'Ghosts' at Fine Art Society Contemporary in London. Ghosts How We Live in the Future Juliette Losq | Macarena Yañez | Laura Oldfield Ford Thomas J Price | Simon Terrill | Stuart Semple The Fine Art...
The story of the Denmark Street 12 Bar door by Stuart Semple
When the music dies some of us will be left without a chair. London is getting obliterated, culturally desecrated. Fragile relics with echos of glittered drag queens and burned out guitar amps are rotting under a layer of chrome and glass. This door is an important...
Visions from the Vault – Stuart Semple Cult of Denim for Selfridges
Every now and then I stumble across an image or something in the studio that starts me off down memory lane. Yesterday, something fell out of my book shelf. Quite unexpected I stumbled across this little Gem: A screen printed back pocket from classic Levis 501's that...