Stuart Semple

Infobox Artist
name = Stuart Semple

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imagesize = 200px
caption =
birthdate = Birth date and age|1980|09|12
location = Bournemouth, Dorset, England
nationality = British
field = Painting
movement = Pop Art, Contemporary Art

Stuart Semple (born 1980) is a contemporary British artist, based in London and Dorset. Semple's practice addresses ideas sparked by immersion in popular culture and combines contemporary figurative painting with pop art.Fairweather, Shona (2007). [http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/gfx/19semple.pdf Aesthetica Magazine "Stuart Semple"] , "Aesthetica magazine", October 2007. Retrieved 24 May, 2008. ]

Life and work

Stuart Semple was born in Bournemouth, Dorset. He studied art at Poole, and painting and printmaking at Bretton Hall College [ [http://wwwnotes2.leeds.ac.uk/cuttings.nsf/ca19a58d66951b21802570980070beb6/fbd863ad29762d2980256ed600341316?OpenDocument "Bretton Hall press section"] , "University of Leeds", 18 July 2004. Retrieved from leeds.ac.uk, [21 April 2008.] in Yorkshire. He was influenced by Pop Art, in particular Andy Warhol, Jean Michel Basquiat and Jeff Koons.

In 2000 Semple nearly died from a peanut allergy. This experience gave him the motivation to dedicate his time to painting. He emerged from hospital and took on the persona of "nancyboy", producing over 3000 works of art between 2000 and 2003 and selling them via the internet.

In 2001 he had his first major London show at the A&D gallery. It was called "Stolen language – the art of Nancyboy". It incorporated fragments and images that he identified with within popular culture and remixed into a personal narrative consisting of large paintings, screen prints, t-shirts and panels.

Semple created a memorial artwork "RIP YBA" with debris collected by Uri Geller from the 2004 Momart warehouse fire. [Buck, Louisa (2004). [http://www.stuartsemple.com/press/artnewspaper.htm Art Newspaper "Bending The Momart Wreckage] ",Art Newspaper", September 2004. Accessed 24 May, 2008.] Semple packaged them in 8 plastic boxes under the title "Burn Baby Burn". The boxes had slogans in pink lettering, including "RIP YBA", which referred to the Young British Artists, by whom much of the destroyed work had been created. Semple stated that amongst the debris collected there were fragments of Tracey Emin's artwork, "Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995" ("the tent"). Semple offered his assemblage to the Tate gallery. [Edwardes, Charlotte (2004). [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1467257/New-art-rises-from-wreckage-of-warehouse.html Daily Telegraph "New art rises from wreckage of warehouse,] "Daily Telegraph", 18 July 2004. Retrieved 2 July 2007.] In 2005 Semple produced an exhibition of his works in an abandoned warehouse in East London, England, called "Post Pop Paradise". Also that year he smuggled a painting into the Saatchi Gallery which included the words "British Painting Still Rocks" as reaction to Charles Saatchi's comments that the YBA artists would be nothing more than a footnote in the history of art. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/4653189.stm "Artist protests at Saatchi show"] , BBC online, 5 July 2005. Retrieved 2 July 2007.] [Reynolds, Nigel (2005). [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/07/06/nsaat06.xml Daily Telegraph "Saatchi rumbles protest painting",] "Daily Telegraph", 6 July 2005. Retrieved 2 July 2007.] [ [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article540743.ece "Artist protests at Saatchi show,] "The Times", 6 July 2005. Retrieved 2 July 2007.] [Leitch, Luke (2005). [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-2573286.html "Brit painter in protest at 'banned' Saatchi art"] , "Evening Standard", 5 July 2005. Retrieved from highbeam.com, 2 July 2007.]

In 2006 Semple exhibited "pop" inspired paintings in the solo show, "Epiphany" at Martin Summers Fine Art in London.Gleadell, Colin (2006). [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/04/04/bamarket04.xml "Market news: Mark Rothko, Tyeb Mehta and more..."] , "Daily Telegraph", 4 April 2006. Retrieved 2 July 2007.]

In 2007 Stuart Semple co-curated and featured in the 'Black Market' at the Anna Kustera gallery in New York with Just Another Rich Kid. Showcasing their collaborative installation piece 'Team Dream Chaos' depicting a provocative teenage girl's bedroom.McClemont, Doug (2007). [http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/blogon/2007/07/doug_mcclemont_on_the_black_ma.php "Doug McClemont on The Black Market at Anna Kustera, New York"] , "Saatchi Gallery", 25 July 2007. Retrieved from saatchi-gallery.co.uk, 12th November 2007.] Semple also curated "Mash Ups, post pop fragments and détournements" at The Kowalsky Gallery in 2008. [ [http://www.kowalskygallery.co.uk/mashups.html "The Kowalsky Gallery website"] ]

In an interview with Doug McClement he purports to the mimetic industries of mass-production; which has been a running critique in Semple's work. He discussed the "idea of taking the mechanization out the pop stuff. Because I find a lot of it non-emotive." He also alluded more to his studio practice; "I used to paint alone when I had a tiny studio middle of nowhere. It had mice and was freezing. Now I have assistants who help me paint, because I'm doing massive, massive stuff, right now. It's not the same..."

Eric Bryant debated Stuart Semple and contemporary Pop Art in a seminal ARTnews feature 50 years after Richard Hamilton had defined the movement. "While earlier generations of Pop artists exhibited a similar love-hate relationship with consumer culture and glamour, this group takes on fear and violence."Bryant, Eric (2007). [http://www.stuartsemple.com/press/artnews.pdf "Paint It Bleak"] , "Art News", Dec 2007. Retrieved from stuartsemple.com, 6 Jan 2007,] Semple's relationship with current culture, politics and imagery has put him at the forefront of the next generation of debate, where artists now tackle the current climate of fear; "his often disturbing, even sinister works also feature guns, pills, and frequent references to suicide."

He has a sister called Victoria.

Exhibitions [ [http://www.stuartsemple.com Taken from the official Stuart Semple website] ]

*Solo Exhibitions
**2008 'Cult of Denim' Selfridges, London
**2008 'Pop Disciple' Aus18, Milan
**2007 'Fake Plastic Love' Truman Brewery & Martin Summers Fine Art, London
**2006 'Epiphany' Martin Summers Fine Art, London
**2005 'Post Pop Paradise' SKIT, London
**2002 'Stolen Language' - The Art of Nancyboy A&D Gallery, London
**2001 'The Return of Nancyboy' Borders, Bournemouth
**2000 'Nancyboy Paintings' Pause, London
**2000 'Nancyboy Paintings' BLU, Bournemouth

Notes and references

External links

* [http://www.stuartsemple.com/index2.htm Stuart Semple website] (requires Flash)
* [http://www.fakeplasticlove.co.uk/ Fake Plastic Love exhibition website website] (requires Flash)
* [http://www.dacs.org.uk/index.php?m=1&s=1&c=82 Design And Copyright Society profile]