Sculpture Placement Group was founded in Glasgow in 2019, we champion sustainability in the visual arts and create new ways to support artists economically. Our Club brings you on this journey with us and rewards members with new sculptures from leading contemporary artists.
SPG Club breaks from the elitism of the art world. Buying or collecting art isn’t easily accessible and it’s often prohibitively expense. Our unique crowdfunding approach to art production means that buying artworks is made more affordable and opens up the whole process of creating an artwork.
SPG Club offers its subscribers a unique experience. Our membership model gives subscribers an insight into how artworks are made and access to the artists themselves. As an annual member you’ll get two new sculptures, and have access to exclusive content about the artist.
- Two artworks from leading contemporary artists.
- Unique sculptures commissioned anually for SPG Club.
- Behind the scenes access into the making of the artwork.
- Crowdfunding model of monthly subscribers.
- An authentication certificate for each of your sculptures.
- Domestically scaled and delivered directly to you.
SPG Club 2022 - Artists
Each year Sculpture Placement Group commission two artists to create domestically scaled sculptures exclusively for its SPG Club members. SPG work with leading contemporary artists, artists that we believe to be making significant work that investigates crucial themes.
#1
Joseph Buckley
“Joseph Buckley’s work is informed by grief and postcolonialism, manifesting in a range of forms including sculpture, video, and writing. Using a myriad of techniques, these themes are alternately reified or obfuscated–mobilized to rhyme or repel each other. Central to his work is the use of “non-materials” (ideas, processes, people), manipulated in manners that mimic the archetypal languages and processes of sculpture. This lends itself to an ongoing critique and consideration of the mechanics of objectification, and the obverse of objectification: dehumanization. Buckley imports tropes and frameworks from science fiction and fantasy and appropriates aspects of these genres and canons in order to produce work that speaks, in a speculative vernacular, to real world conditions.”– ISCP NYC
Joseph Buckley studied at Leeds College of Art, Goldsmiths, University of London, and Yale School of Art.
Selected Solo
2020 Letter From The Home Office, Lock Up International, London, UK.
Hateful Stool, Disturb The Neighbors, New York City, USA.
Cousin Table, Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space, New York City, USA.
2018 Traitor Muscle, Art in General, New York City, USA.
2017 Brotherhood Tapestry, The Tetley, Leeds, UK.
Selected works
photo credit Mischa Haller
plagues, fires, floods
2021
cast plastic, formica, mdf
97 x 25 x 76 inches
Joseph Buckley’s work brings a formidable knowledge of science fictional premises, traumas and catastrophes into uncomfortable proximity with contemporary class and race politics. Through a critical sculptural practise, he foregrounds the violence of fabrication as an analogue for the social reproduction of inequality, bigotry, and ecological collapse. His phalanx of disturbingly hollow martial entities plagues, fires, floods (2021), draws upon the vernacular of private security companies, riot cops, and classical armouries to create a composite image of a future enemy whose ancestors are, horrifically, already in our midst.
Orcish Forming
Buckley promotes the Orc from an evil role to that of surplus labor employed as modular furniture components, perniciously extra.
photo credit Charlott Markus
photo credit Hesse Flatow
George Slaying Dragon
George Slaying Dragon recasts England’s patron saint as an enslaved individual, rebelling, and in the process of defeating a snarling white dragon representing perhaps, the capitalist slaver, sending it to its death beneath the waves of the Atlantic Ocean.
#2
Artist TBA - 15th December 2021
Sculpture Placement Group will be unveiling the second artist that will be part of SPG Club 2022 later in December.
Member Events
- Virtual studio visit with the artist.
- Online events and exclusive content.
- Podcast and writing about the artist.
- Regular information and updates
Reviews
I really like the Members' Area - it's been really helpful and interesting throughout. I love seeing the recommendations and really appreciate that there is a hub to go back to to watch missed events.
We love the first sculpture. It was a delight to open, a surprising form and it links brilliantly with the event and screening we attended, which give it an extra resonance for us.
SPG Club 2022
£45 per month
- 2 limited edition sculptures that have been exclusively commissioned for SPG Club.
- The sculptures will be created by leading contemporary artists Joseph Buckley and another artist to be announced later this month.
- The sculptures are domestically-scaled and delivered directly to your door.
- An authentication certificate for each of your sculptures.
- Artist profiles and information about and how each work was made.
- Behind the scenes access to the making of each sculpture.
- Access to live artist talks and events.
- Information and advice on how to care for and display your sculptures in your home.
- Free UK delivery.
SPG Club 2021 - Artists
Andy Holden
Andy tireless practice involves sculpture, installation, painting, pop music, performance, animation and multi-screen-video. He also makes music with his band the Brubby Mitts and runs his own gallery, Ex-Baldesarre in Bedford. His work has been shown at Kettles Yard, Tate Britain, the Venice Biennale and Spike Island.
For SPG Club, Andy riffed on his animated avatar popularised in his Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape film and Structure of Feeling. The avatar has become a digital and physical composite, a vehicle to explore how we perceive and interpret the world. Five sculptural versions of this avatar were produced for SPG Club 2021 #1.
Holly Hendry
Holly’s work looks at what lies beneath the surface, often embedding waste products that don’t break down and can be rediscovered during excavation processes. Casting is central to her large site responsive sculptures. She works with a range of materials from classical sculptural materials like jesmonite and silicone, to the everyday like lipstick and soap.
Hendry’s work has been shown at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, the Biennale de Lyon, Selfridges Flagship Store and the Liverpool Biennial.
We’re very excited to see what Holly will produce on a domestic scale, as a highly skilled artist that’s often experimenting with materials, the results are sure to be exciting.
Our social impact
For every 10 subscribers we donate a sculpture to a partner charity organisation whose aims align with ours. We organise workshops, and other interactive events based on the sculptures and the process involved in making them. This is part of our wider objective to place sculptures at the centre of the wider community.
Govanhill Housing Association
Govanhill Housing Association, a community-controlled social landlord operating in Glasgow. Registered in 1974, the Association’s roots lie in Glasgow’s policy of large-scale demolitions of slum housing from the late 1950s/1960s onwards. This ushered in a new breed of housing associations – Govanhill among them. Led by local residents, these housing associations were to become renewal agents in working class communities throughout Glasgow and a shining example of people power in action.
Grampian Hospitals Art Trust
Kirktonholme Primary School
Kirktonholme Primary School is located in East Kilbride, Scotland. Teachers and pupils have a great interest in engaging with arts activities and are very pro-active in seeking out opportunities to do so. The school’s motto is inspiring for all attending the school, HEART which stands for Happiness, excellence, achievement, respect and teamwork.
About Us
Sculpture Placement Group
We’re a community interest company, working towards being leaders in sustainable practice within the visual arts. Our projects focus on making the visual arts environmentally and financially sustainable, and reaching diverse audiences by bringing art into workplaces, homes and local communities. Some of our active projects include:
SPG Loans: A flagship project that matches artworks that have been languishing in storage to new custodians from the private and public sector. Placing contemporary sculpture into different contexts and to new audiences.
SPG Club: A contemporary art subscription scheme that gives its members a chance to collect domestically-scaled artworks from leading contemporary artists. The Club allows a more crowdfunded approach to the production of contemporary art that eschews some of the cultural or economic barriers between an audience and artist.
Circular Arts Network: Integrating more sustainable practises in the creation of new artworks and other creative projects is impacted by our circular economy tool CAN. CAN allows users to share and exchange materials and resources. It finds partnerships with construction companies and extends the network of sharing to strengthen the circular economy within the creative industries.