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Stuart Semple
British artist (born 1980) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Stuart Buchanan Semple (born 12 September 1980) is a British artist and activist who works with sculpture and painting.[1][2]
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Life and career
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Semple was born in Bournemouth, Dorset. He studied art and design at Bournemouth and Poole College, and painting and printmaking at Bretton Hall College in Yorkshire.[1][3] He first wanted to become an artist after his mother took him to see Van Gogh's Sunflowers at the age of 7.[4][5] In 2000, after a life-threatening allergic reaction, he decided to pursue a career as an artist.[6][7] He later referenced the electrocardiography flatline he experienced in a 2010 painting.[8]
In 2002 he had his first major London solo exhibition, "Stolen Language – the art of Nancyboy", at the A&D Gallery.[9][10] In 2009, he auctioned off Nancyboy-themed artworks to raise funds for the UK charity Mind, after his grandmother was diagnosed with schizophrenia.[11][12] After the 2004 Momart warehouse fire, he was commissioned to create a memorial with the debris, titled Burn Baby Burn.[13][14] In 2005, Semple produced an exhibition in East London, titled Post Pop Paradise. Also that year he placed a painting he created at the Saatchi Gallery, avoiding security in doing so, as a protest against comments Charles Saatchi made.[15][16][17][18]
In 2006 Semple's exhibition "Epiphany" at Martin Summers Fine Art in London questioned the role of religion in modern life[19] in a series of in-your-face paintings that alluded to popular culture, graphic media, advertising and social issues.[20]
Semple began posting drawings he created on eBay in 1999.[21][22] In 2012, he published an extended play on iTunes featuring paintings and a short film.[23][24] In 2013, he created Jump, a 10 by 10m bouncy cloud trampoline, for Australia's Federation Square's public art programme.[25] In 2014, his exhibition "Anxiety Generation" was featured in Tatler magazine.[26] That same year, he joined talent agency Next Management.[27] He has also been featured on the BBC,[28][29][30] and has spoken at the Institute of Contemporary Arts[24][31] and Amnesty International.[32]
In 2004, art dealer Anthony d'Offay flew Semple's portfolio to be shown in New York City.[13] A 2007 solo exhibition saw $1 million sales within the first five minutes.[8] In 2013, a London exhibition had presales to a charitable foundation of $1 million.[33] That same year, he was featured in The Guardian's list of Ten Best Art Auctions.[34] In 2015, he created a colouring book for adults to raise funds for Mind.[35]
From 2023 to 2025, Semple ran a Kickstarter project called Abode to recreate Adobe projects, that raised £181,709 from 3,031 backers. The project failed. [36]
Performance Art
In 2016, Semple came into conflict with the artist Anish Kapoor when Kapoor acquired exclusive artistic rights to the super-black material Vantablack.[37] He released a paint titled "PINK – the world's pinkest pink paint", banning Kapoor from purchasing the paint.[38][39] In June 2024, Semple officially changed his name to Anish Kapoor.[40]
In 2021, Semple released a pigment called TIFF Blue, aiming to "democratise" Tiffany Blue, a shade of blue trademarked by Tiffany & Co.[41] The same year, he also released a pigment called Incredibly Kleinish Blue with a similar intention of democratising International Klein Blue, which is patented by Yves Klein.[42][43] In 2023, Semple released a pigment called Pinkie, aiming to democratise Barbie Pink.[44][45]
Freetone
Freetone (or Sempletone) is an Adobe plugin, created by Semple in 2022 in response to the licensing fallout between Pantone and Adobe Inc.[46][47] Freetone is a collection of 1,280 colours that mimic the Pantone colour palette with a similar set of number codes.[48][49] Semple barred any employees and associates of Adobe or Pantone from buying, using or downloading Freetone.[49][50]
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Activism
Semple has supported Amnesty International and has created artworks for the Freedom of Expression Campaign.[51]
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In 2011, Semple was made an ambassador for mental health charity Mind.[52] He initiated the Creative Therapies fund within the organisation which he launched with Stephen Fry and Melvyn Bragg and curated the exhibition "Mindful",[53] which included works from Jake & Dinos Chapman, Mat Collishaw, Tracey Emin, Mona Hatoum, Sarah Lucas and Sebastian Horsley.[54] He has since launched a number of fundraising art projects for Mind.[55][56][57] The Creative Therapies fund backs mental health projects in the United Kingdom.[58][59]
He has also advocated for artists' rights in the United Kingdom,[60][61] humanitarian aid,[62][63][64] and world peace.[65][66][67]
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Exhibitions
Curatorial projects
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In 2007, Semple co-curated and featured in The Black Market at the Anna Kustera Gallery in New York with Ju$t Another Rich Kid.[84]
Alongside Nicky Carvell, he co-curated Mash-Ups: Post Pop Fragments and Détournements at the Kowalsky Gallery in London in 2008 for the Design and Artists Copyright Society,[85][86] and later produced London Loves the Way Things Fall Apart (2009) and This Is England (2011) for Galleria AUS18 in Milan.[87]
In 2010, Semple curated This Is England at Aubin Gallery (which he directed in association with Aubin & Wills and Shoreditch House), featuring Sarah Maple, Nicky Carvell, David Hancock and Richard Galloway. The exhibition later toured to Milan, marking the beginning of his long-running collaborations with Maple and Carvell.[88]
In 2011, he curated the large-scale exhibition Mindful in the 25,000-square-foot Old Vic Tunnels, featuring works by Jake and Dinos Chapman, Tracey Emin, Mona Hatoum, Mat Collishaw, Sebastian Horsley, Sarah Lucas, Barney Bubbles, Liliane Lijn, Tessa Farmer and Semple. The exhibition coincided with a gala dinner at the Imperial War Museum hosted by Stephen Fry and Lord Melvyn Bragg to raise funds for the Mind Creative Therapies Fund.[89][6]
In 2021, Semple curated the exhibition Crash in a vacant department store in Bournemouth’s town centre. The project served as a prototype for a new artist-led space and brought together local authority and Arts Council support for repurposing the former Debenhams building as a contemporary art gallery.[90][91]
Later that year, Semple founded GIANT in the same building. The gallery launched with the exhibition Big Medicine, curated by Semple and featuring works by Jake and Dinos Chapman, Jim Lambie, Gavin Turk, Gary Card, Paul Fryer and others. The Guardian described GIANT as “a vast, artist-run gallery bringing colour and optimism to a town centre hit hard by lockdown.”[92] Museums Journal called it “a major new arts hub for the south coast.”[93]
At GIANT, Semple later curated solo exhibitions by Sarah Maple and Nicky Carvell, continuing their earlier collaborations from the Aubin Gallery and reintroducing their work to new audiences within the gallery’s opening programme of British contemporary artists.[94][95]
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Curatorial projects
- Selected curated exhibitions
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Public works and performances
- Happy Cloud (2009) – public intervention outside Tate Modern; later in Dublin, Manchester and Moscow.[102]
- Happy City: Denver (2018) – city-wide programme on happiness and urban space.[103]
- Something Else (2022) – interactive event at Dulwich Picture Gallery.[104]
Speaking and writing
Semple has spoken at the Oxford Union, the Southbank Centre’s Changing Minds festival,[105] and the Royal College of Art. He has written for The Guardian and Vogue España, and presented art-education segments for BBC Bitesize.[106]
Publications
- Semple, Stuart. Make Art or Die Trying: The Only Art Book You’ll Ever Need If You Want to Make Art That Changes the World. Rockport Publishers, 11 June 2024. ISBN 978-0-7603-8703-0.[107]
Discography
- Exit – EP (2012), multimedia release combining painting, film and soundtrack.[108]
Film
- Featured in the documentary This Search for Meaning (2024), directed by Placebo.[109]
References
External links
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