Simon Birch (artist)
| Simon Birch | |
|---|---|
 Birch in 2013 | |
| Born |
21 October 1974 Brighton, England, UK |
| Nationality | British |
| Known for | Painting, film, sculpture, photography, installation art and performance art |
| Notable work | "Hope & Glory", "Laughing with a Mouth Full of Blood" |
Simon Birch is a painter and multimedia artist of Armenian descent, born in Brighton in 1974 and resides in Hong Kong.[1][2] [3]
Biography
Birch's family moved around much as his parents pursued work, often in the countryside, before settling in the Midlands, the city of Leicester, in his mid-teens.
Birch left school early with little academic success, left home and entered straight into independent life working many odd jobs. He obsessively pursued an interest in urban dance music, DJing at club nights and rave parties around the UK eventually establishing his own regular club night, 'Head', which often featured the heavyweights of the DJ world such as Sasha, Carl Cox and Top Buzz. In the mid 90's, Birch left the UK permanently to travel, spending considerable time in Australia, before finally settling in Hong Kong in 1997. Continuing his involvement in dance music, Birch organised a number of hugely successful events under the brand Way Out East until government policy outlawed such events in Hong Kong. To supplement his income from such events, Birch worked construction on the Tsing Ma Bridge, all of which allowed him to pursue his passion for art production.
After being made redundant from his day job (ironically also due to government policy), Birch, more focused on art, began producing exhibitions of his work to try to generate income which met quickly with success. Within a few years of self-generated projects, he signed with a contemporary gallery, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery in Hong Kong. His figurative work led to many portrait commissions, both locally and abroad, though the bulk of his work explored explosive figures falling through space.
In 2008, Birch was diagnosed with NK-T cell non-hodkins lymphoma but after a 6-month multi-treatment approach, has since made a full recovery.[4]
This work was critically recognized and acknowledged with awards such as the prestigious Louis Vuitton and Sovereign Art Foundation awards. His paintings value increased steadily, as has the waiting list, allowing Birch to finance and organise more elaborate non-commercial multi-media art projects and large scale installations, notably 2006's group show,'Outside Context Problem', 2007's 'Azhanti High Lightning' (Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore), 2008's 'This Brutal House', and most significantly, 2010's 20,000 sq ft (1,900 m2) multiple media project, 'Hope and Glory' at the ArtisTree space in Taikoo Place.
Most recently Birch has accepted management from groundbreaking Asian arts organisation 'Future Industries', and his work has recently been shown at the Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art, London's Haunch of Venison, a solo installation in Beijing and a solo exhibition, 'Laughing With a Mouthful of Blood', a show of recent paintings at an unusual venue; the Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences. For 2012 Birch will be involved in a number of projects in UK, Hong Kong, and America including a large scale touring installation project.
References
- ↑ http://www.behance.net/simonbirch
- ↑ http://artistaday.com/?p=4955
- ↑ Birch, Simon (March 2015). The Inevitable (1 ed.). Hong Kong: Ben Brown Fine Arts.
- ↑ Birch, Simon. "Art: Life Made Me Do It". www.ted.com. TED Conferences, LLC. Retrieved 3 March 2015.