statement
Simon Head walks a line between language, philosophy, and materiality; he occupies territories of translation, and reinvention; this often involves personal reflexive memory, concepts that are not necessarily about himself.
Head overlays systems and structures of the world with his own rules and loose logic; he says, 'inquiries carried out during field trips reveal essential discoveries that assume the responsibility of truth which in turn awakens the realm of invention'.
Art has a hard job to do; aiming for aesthetic value it hankers after the understanding of a deeper meaning; Simon Head's art is like this, always something else going on, at the edges, behind the aesthetic surface.
biography
Simon Head is an artist living and working in London; his career path crosses engineering drawing, typography and photography all of which underpin the rigours of his art practice; his projects often involve deeply conceptual thinking which inhabit territories of memorialising, translation and reinvention.
He is a recent post graduate MA Fine Art (Distinction) from The City & Guilds London Art School, where he also received the distinguished ‘Tony Carter’ award.
Over many years Head has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions across UK and Europe; his work is held in private collections; his photography has been displayed by The Royal Photographic Society and London Independent Photography.
Simon has given talks and lectures at Chelsea Art College; 'Film as Measure Exhibition & Symposium' and at 'Photofusion'. Recently he was selected in the 'Royal West of England Annual Open', 'Columbia Threadneedle Prize', and 'Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize'; in 2016 he co-curated the exhibition 'That Burning Field' and 2018 exhibited 'The Idea of Absence', after an art residency in St. John on Bethnal Green; recent exhibitions include ''EYE' Discerning Eye', Mall Gallery, London - 2023, and 'The Derwent Drawing Prize' - London - 2024, and 'Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize'- London & touring - 2024.
His work has been published in 'A.N. Magazine’, 'Flip Magazine', and RPS 'Contemporary Group Magazine'; he has an online interview in the March 2019 issue, 'Drawing Thoughts' (Part 4), https://www.interaliamag.org/interviews/simon-head/ - SACU (Society of Anglo Chinese Understanding), 'China Eye' Autumn Newsletter No. 87, 2025 - ‘Simon Head's art reflects on 1982 China’, Referencing his project: China Now (Deng Xiaoping's Children, 1982), 2025.
Selected Group Exhibitions
2011 - The Royal Photographic Society Members Print Exhibition
2011 - The Royal Photographic Society 154th Int. Print Exhibition
2012 - The Royal Photographic Society 155th Int. Print Exhibition
2012 - 'MEMORIAL::LAIROMEM' - Crossing Lines - Summer Show
2012 - The London Villages Project - Exhibition - Goldsmiths, London
2013 - ‘Film as Measure’ - Exhibition and Symposium - Chelsea College of Art
2016 - 'That Burning Field' - half-life project space, co-curated and exhibited, London
2017 - The Royal West of England Academy - 165 Annual Open Exhibition
2018 - ‘The Columbia Threadneedle Prize’ - The Mall Gallery, London
2018 - ‘Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize’ - "BUFFALO YOGA 01.01"
2018 - Curated/Exhibited 'The Idea of Absence', 2018, ‘Lumen’ art residency
2019 - ‘ANTHOLOGY’ - Menier Gallery - London
2019 - ‘FROM THE BOOK TO THE BOOK’ - OffShoot Gallery - London
2022 - ‘MAFA, Final exhibition’ - City & Guilds London Art School,
2023 - ‘ING Discerning EYE’, Mall Gallery - London
2024 - ’The Derwent Drawing Prize’ - OXO Tower Gallery, London.
2024 - ‘Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize’ - Trinity Buoy Wharf, London and touring.
2025 - ‘Letters From The Shed’ - Studio 1.1, London.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
1994 - ‘Electricity: The restructuring of an Industry’, Liberal Club, London
1997 - 'Terminal Language' @ The Poetry Society, London
2004 - 'd e n i a l' - London Centre of Psychotherapy
2004 - 'a u t o e x p o s u r e' - The Engineer, London
2005 - 'bridge' - Kingsgate Gallery, London
2008 - 'tiempo-imagen-estructura' - O+O gallery, Valencia. Spain
2015 - 'slipped slate' - half-life project space, London
Publications
2010 - 'testimonio' the book
2010 - 'OUR COMMON GROUND' the Book
2012 - 'Thames Reflex / Waterloo Bridge' for The London Villages Project
2019 - online interview published in ‘Interalia Magazine’, March 2019 issue, 'Drawing Thoughts' (Part 4), https://www.interaliamag.org/interviews/simon-head/
2022 - ‘Ten Unfolded Thoughts’ and ‘The Idea of Silence’.
2024 - ‘Walking Backwards and Spitting in the Face of Death’; a tribute to John Levett and a collaborative venture; Michael Rodgers, Nick Scammell, Simon Head.
2025 - ‘Simon Head's art reflects on 1982 China’, Referencing his project: China Now (Deng Xiaoping's Children, 1982), 2025.