My recent works find inspiration in biological forms and architecture and try to imagine new relationships between the built and the natural world. The bursary would afford me the time, resources and focus to further these important step changes in my practice and to create forms and structures that evoke shifting territories and highlight a fragile ecosystem.
I want to work with skilled glass worker, Jonathan Abbot, based in Derbyshire and with whom I have worked with in the past to create hand blown glass forms and in addition, with other identified fabricators and technicians in Sheffield to create additional sculptural components that might operate in conjunction with or in opposition to the glass-works. These will include works in bronze, wood and steel and further push and explore the possibilities of material and process combination, in order to summon a friction and to push against mainstream standards of beauty.
I feel I have only scraped the surface of what might be possible with the medium of hand blown glass, yet I know it is perfectly suited to my developing sculptural language, one which communicates a complex sense of becoming, transformation and fragile fruition.
Alongside this, I want to push at the parameters of display and installation and explore the potential of working in a more live way, whereby a given installation or body of work, might have the capacity to change, involve and evolve over a given duration of time. I recently undertook a testing bed residency in a public facing space at Yorkshire Artspace, Sheffield, whereby passers-by could see into the space, flipping the script of the artist working in isolation. One of the many aspects that excited me about this project and way of working, was the liveness. Much of my previous work has aspired to harness a sense of mutability, but this project facilitated an opportunity to take this to a new level, to a point where, working and operating in the space, I literally felt part of the work. It is this approach imbued with endless possibilities that I want to further develop with this award.
As part of this project, I want to work with a wide range of individuals in Darlington, offering specially conceived sculpture workshops to groups who don’t usually have access to the arts. I have years of experience in the delivery of workshops and an ability to make creative thinking and process, accessible, fun and transformative. The workshops would take place in Darlington and playfully explore ideas inherent to the possibilities of sculpture as an art form, with the ideas explored and work created, directly informing the new body of work I would create. In addition, I would want to organise a day trip for a group of individuals to visit the hot glass studio in Matlock to witness new work evolving and to try the process themselves.
To further enhance and raise the profile of the creative arts within the area, I would want to stage a mutable and ambitious exhibition in Darlington of both work created over the project period and work created in situ. To further deepen the legacy of the project, this stage would include an artist talk and Q&A session so that the town at large would benefit directly from its wider possibilities and outcomes.
I have lived and worked in Sheffield since 2000 and been a full-time visual artist since 1997. Although I would most clearly define myself as a sculptor and installation artist,my practice employs a multimedia approach and making is at the core of my practice. In my work, influences from film, literature, architecture, art history and the natural world are filtered, distorted and sometimes discarded as they find three-dimensional form. Recent works explore and celebrate a sense of subversion and a blurring of boundaries, they strive to conjure an emotive and shared sense of slippage between the realms of the public and the private.
Recent projects include a testing bed residency at Yorkshire Artspace (2024) and a commission for Sheffield Museums (2025) which has recently been installed within Graves Gallery, Sheffield. In 2010, I was selected to represent the UK on a 10-month residency as part of the international studio programme at Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, the residency culminated in a solo exhibition across three separate spaces. I have undertaken further international residencies including one at Kunstlerhaus Dortmund, Germany (2015). In 2012, I was commissioned by the Northern Art Prize to make a work for the public realm, the resulting piece was exhibited in Central London during the time of the London Olympics and is now in a private collection. In 2007, I secured gallery representation with Vane Gallery in Newcastle, with whom I have had 4 solo exhibitions to date. The gallery has also presented my work at a number of international art fairs, and shown it as part of a number of group exhibitions. In 2009 I was nominated for the Northern Art Prize and was the winner of Cube open in Manchester which resulted in an exhibition of new work and the invitation of a solo exhibition and residency at Cube Gallery the following year. I have been awarded numerous prizes and awards and my work has consistently been exhibited widely and internationally.
1994-1995 MA Sculpture, Winchester School of Art (Distinction)
1991-1994 BA Hons Fine Art, Kennington School of Art, London (1st Class)
1989-1990 BTEC National Diploma Art and Design, Exeter College of Art
Please see selected awards/grants below
2025 Developing Your Creative Practice Award, Arts Council England
2022 Artist Bursary, The Artists Information Company, UK
2021 Freelance Art and Culture Award, Sheffield Culture Consortium
Developing Creative Practice Award, Arts Council England
2020 Freelands Foundation Emergency grant, Freelands Foundation, London, UK
2019 Making Ways Travel Bursary, Sheffield Culture Consortium, UK
Developing Creative Practice Award, Arts Council England
2014 Action Research Bursary, University of Sheffield and Yorkshire Artspace, awarded for work on Remake
Castlegate project as part of Festival of the Mind
Artist Development Bursary for new collaborations, Yorkshire and Humberside Visual Arts Network (YVAN), UK
2013 New work Award, Jersey Arts Trust, in relation to the exhibition ‘Subjective maps / Disappearance’, National
gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
2012 Research and Development Award, Arts Council England, for work in Berlin and Sheffield
2011 Research and Development Award, Arts Council England
2010 Residency Award, Arts Council England, in relation to seven month period on International Studio program at
Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin
2009 Cube Open Exhibition Winner
The Northern Art Prize 2009, long-list, Leeds City Council, Leeds, UK
2008 Development and Production Award, Arts Council England
2007 Research and Development Award, Arts Council England
I consider my individual practice to be rooted in the creation of professional opportunity through a knowledge and understanding of what constitutes contemporary practice. In addition, as a means of extending and diversifying my practice, I collaborate with other artists on a periodic basis, most notably with the Sheffield based artist Maud Haya Baviera. From these collaborations self-created projects and professional opportunities often evolve.
Yes, please see selected below
2025 ‘At the centre of it all’, an installation / sculptural work commissioned by Sheffield Museums and exhibited at
Graves Gallery, Sheffield, UK
2024 ‘The Living’, Sculpture commission for Parsons Cross, Sheffield, UK, Commissioned by Sheffield City council
and Sheffield housing association
2014 Yorkshire Artspace and the University of Sheffield Architecture department.
Appointed Lead Artist on a project entitled Remake Castlegate as part of the city wide Festival of the Mind.
2012 The Northern Art prize and Logistics to create a work/sculpture for the public realm,
which was shown in central London at the time of the London Olympics 2012
2011 Sheffield Museums, to create an artwork for the entrance of the then recently opened
Millennium gallery.
Yes, please see selected below
Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain – Région Basse Normandie, France
Nottingham Museums and Galleries, UK
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Scotland
Sheffield Museums and Art Galleries, Sheffield, UK
Yale Centre for British Art, Connecticut, USA
National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
Jersey Museum and Art Gallery, Jersey CI
Guernsey Museum and Art Gallery, Guernsey CI
Centre for Artists’ Publications-Weserburg, Museum of Modern Art, Bremen, Germany
British Film Institute, London, UK
Yes numerous times, please see Bibliography section of website for more detail
https://simonleruez.net/cv/
Yes, Vane Gallery, Newcastle Gateshead, UK
2024 Artist in Residence, Testing Ground, Yorkshire Artspace, Sheffield, UK
2015 Artist in Residence, Künstlerhaus Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany
2010 Artist in Residence, Cube: Centre for the Built Environment, Manchester, UK
Artist in Residence, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
1997 Artist in Residence, Facultad de Bellas Artes, Valencia, Spain
Email: info@simonleruez.net
Address: Studio 22 Bloc Studios, 198 Arundel Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S1 4RE, GB
Local Authority: Sheffield City Council
