Stuart Semple

Born in 1980 and educated at Bretton Hall in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Stuart Semple is perhaps best known for his HappyCloud performance on London’s Southbank in which he flooded the city’s skyline with thousands of pink smiley faced clouds at the height of the recession. His works have featured in biennales, art fairs and solo exhibitions in Europe, Russia, Australia, China and America, and can be found in major international collections including the Getty, Langen, David Roberts, Niarchos foundations and exhibited recently at the Goss-Michael Foundation and Victoria Miro. Stuart Semple's playful and expressive use of composition and colour often contradicts a subtle and purposeful agenda that includes recurring themes of art history, spirituality and alienation within his large scale, emotive works. Returning to London during 2013’s Frieze art fair, Stuart's recent solo exhibition Suspend Disbelief featured an immersive exploratory environment with film, paintings and sculpture throughout 15 rooms where magic tricks were performed by holograms, childhood experiences were revisited and the cycle of life and death was questioned within a room of perpetually blooming flowers. Semple's most recent solo exhibition was held in 2014 at Delahunty Gallery in London.