Per Barclay is an artist of Norwegian origin, born in Oslo, who lives and works in Turin.
Described by critic Juan Manuel Bonet as one of the most versatile artists on the contemporary scene, Barclay combines photography, sculpture, and installations in his practice, in which the use of water and motor oil plays a fundamental role.
Within his eclectic artistic practice, photography represents the essential fulcrum: as Solveig Øvstebø observes, his elaborate installations can be interpreted as true photographic tableaux conceived to bring to life environments suspended between the unreal and the hyper-real.
The most renowned element of his visual language is his use of architectural spaces, which are reflected and extended across the surface of liquids contained in his pools. Through this technique, Barclay invites viewers to deconstruct space and suspend the concept of time. In his sculptures and photographs, as Giulietta Speranza points out, references to specific places or moments are deliberately absent.
The result is a disorienting visual experience in which we lose our perceptual certainties: even when confronted with photographs that have undergone no manipulation or digital retouching, the viewer is compelled to examine the individual details that make up the scene in order to distinguish reality from reflection. Through a suggestive yet never pretentious visual language, Per Barclay thus transforms space into a mirror for reflecting on fundamental themes of art and human existence.
Among the projects realized at FPAC:
Come casa (collettiva), 2024
Bianco Palermo, 2016
Party with Us (collettiva), 2013
Palazzo Costantino, 2009-10