Low Scenic, Oak structure, fabric, brass, leather, variable dimensions, 2003

Untitled, Oak and Leather, 87.5 x 91 x 41 cm, 2007

Untitled, Oak and Leather, 91.5 x 91.5 x 41 cm, 2007

Untitled, Oak and Leather, 91.5 x 91.5 x 41 cm, 2007

Untitled, Oak and Leather, 91.5 x 91.5 x 41 cm, 2007

Houndstooth (black), 2 Screenprints, 60 x 80 x 4cms, 2005

Houndstooth (black), 2 Screenprints, 60 x 80 x 4cms, 2005

Houndstooth (red), 2 Screenprints, 60 x 80 x 4cms, 2005

Houndstooth (red), 2 Screenprints, 60 x 80 x 4cms, 2005

Born in 1968 in Paisley, Scotland, Claire Barclay lives and works in Glasgow. Her sculptural pieces are often site-specific and organically built. Barclay assembles found objects and handcrafted pieces into architectural installations that are poised in precarious balancing acts, both physically and metaphorically. Barclay’s attention to material (fur, brass, oak, leather, steel) invests her pieces with an auratic quality that contributes to their atmospheric tension. Oscillating between domestic utility and fetishistic totem, her pieces intimate a grand narrative, at once personal and universal, composed of ideal types built up through the recurring use of particular objects, materials and motifs.

Claire Barclay has recent and up-coming solo exhibitions at Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (2009), Camden Arts Centre, London (2008), Kunstverein Braunschweig, Germany (2007) and Tate Britain as part of the ‘Art Now’ series (2005). Her work has also been included in “If it didn’t exist you’d have to invent it: a partial Showroom history” at The Showroom, London (2006), “British Art Show 6” at Baltic, Gateshead (touring: Manchester, Nottingham, Bristol) (2005) and “Zenomap”, the Scottish Pavilion for the 50th Venice Biennale (2003).

Claire Barclay  is represented by Doggerfisher, Edinburgh and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London.