Simeon Barclay: Farewell Sweet Innocence

In summer 2026, John Hansard Gallery will present Farewell Sweet Innocence, a major solo exhibition by Simeon Barclay!Bringing together new commissions with existing reconfigured works, the exhibition will transform the gallery spaces into a sculptural environment that examines how domestic objects, memory, and identity intersect with wider systems of culture, aspiration, and display.Simeon Barclay is one of the most compelling artists working in the UK today, whose practice spans sculpture, installation, sound, performance, and writing.

Drawing on his own personal history, popular culture, fashion and design, he creates environments where the personal meets the social, and the emotional connects with the architectural.

Shifting between handmade and fabricated, Barclay utilises found materials and overlooked everyday forms to question how we situate ourselves within culture.The exhibition will show the originality of Barclay’s sculptural language, offering audiences new ways to think about how familiar objects can be reimagined as carriers of memory and identity.