One of my works from New Vedute is included in the group exhibition ‘Tra mito e sacro’ (Between myth and sacred) at the Bilotti Museum in Rome. ‘
‘Our first port of call’ 2014- 2016
53 x 84 cm (Durospec perspex reverse mounted print_
The exhibition, which runs from 16 April and until 14 September 2025, aims to explore the dialogue between myth and sacredness through a selection of works from the collections of the Capitoline Superintendency in Rome.
“Precisely from the perspective of a secular enquiry, the exhibition unites the concept of myth with that of the sacred: a continuity that has embraced the spiritual history of mankind from its origins to the present day, in which mythological narratives, as well as religious ones, have often taken on metaphorical value to address the great universal questions about life, death, good, evil, love and hate.
The exhibition includes 26 works created with heterogeneous languages and materials – some in the form of large installations – in which, despite their diversity, it has been possible to identify formal or poetic assonances and to follow certain conceptual threads that we find throughout the exhibition: the classical myth (works by Ceroli and Gandolfi, which lead us as far as the works by de Chirico in the Bilotti Museum); the mythologisation of a family history (Fila); the temple (works by Pulvirenti, Piangiamore, Tesi, Roberts); the rituality of prayer or ceremonies (works by Quinn and Bonichi); birth, pain, death and resurrection, to which the figures of Mary and Christ are linked (works by Valeri, Fogli, Fazzini, Ceccobelli, Quinn, Wildt, Tato, Bonichi, C. Fontana, Verna); divinities, figures and mystical symbolism (Ceroli, Leoncillo, Cagli, Di Stasio, Ferrazzi, Mariani, Giorni, Rizzo).”
A print of Brighton West Pier from my Pierdom series joins the collection of the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, courtesy of a gift by Tom & Nancy O’Neil.
Image: Brighton West Pier, East Sussex, April 2011 (Chromogenic print, 48×60″, edition #4/4)
The Hood collection encompasses important holdings of American, Native American, European, African, and Melanesian art, including a significant collection of indigenous Australian contemporary art and a major archive of photography.
I have four works from my Merrie Albion series included in this group exhibition celebrating the 10th anniversary of Photo London.
“Presented in both the Embankment East & West Galleries at Somerset House, the special exhibition ‘London Lives’ curated by critic and author Francis Hodgson features an array of creative responses to the City by around 30 of its leading image makers including David Bailey, James Barnor, Antony Cairns, Jamie Hawkesworth, Hannah Starkey, Es Devlin, Joy Gregory, Nadav Kander, Idris Khan, Rut Blees Luxemburg, Christian Marclay, Mary McCartney, Simon Roberts, Mitra Tabrizian and Nick Turpin. This ambitious and wide-ranging exhibition is both an ode to London and the photography it has inspired.”
List of ‘London Lives’ artists:
Heather Agyepong
Miles Aldridge
David Bailey
James Barnor
Rut Blees Luxemburg
Antony Cairns
Ed Clark
Susan Derges
Jermaine Francis
Julia Fullerton Batten
Lydia Goldblatt
Joy Gregory
Jamie Hawkesworth
Hannah Hughes
Tom Hunter
Nadav Kander
Idris Khan
Nick Knight
Karen Knorr
Chrystel Lebas
Tom Lovelace
Christian Marclay
Mary McCartney
Simon Roberts
Ewen Spencer
Hannah Starkey
Mitra Tabrizian
Alys Thomlinson
Nick Turpin
‘An Avoidable Loss, A Failure of State screening at the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts, University of Sussex
Tuesday 11 March, 2025
5:00pm – 9:00pm
Free
Simon Roberts will introduce the film at 7pm (film duration 33 minutes, plays on a loop)
This screening presents a reflective journey of Brighton-based artist Simon Roberts’ compelling film, An Avoidable Loss, A Failure of State.
This poignant piece weaves Roberts’ seascape photographs, captured daily during the COVID-19 pandemic, with government press conference recordings, personal testimonials, daily death-toll figures for the UK, and a moving monologue by actor, Rory Kinnear.
This screening takes place on 11 March 2025, the fifth anniversary of the day the World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. The film encourages us to contemplate the profound impact of the crisis.
Exploring themes of grief, outrage, and asking critical questions surrounding the government’s response, it offered an immersive experience that some may find emotionally challenging. Five years on from the pandemic, the film attempts to comprehend the unprecedented challenges faced by society in 2020.
More information: https://www.attenboroughcentre.com/events/5373/simon-roberts-an-avoidable-loss-a-failure-of-state/
A group exhibition of Sussex-linked artists responding to the theme MEANDER: Land + Water.
I will be showing a newly made Celestial cyanotype.
Exhibition is open to the public on 1st, 2nd, 7th, 8th, 9th, 14th and 15th March 2025, 10 am – 4 pm
BN9 STUDIO, Marine Workshops, Newhaven, BN9 OER
Please bid on a special print edition of Pierdom for the benefit of the 12th Missing People charity auction, which takes place on 13 March 2025.
You can bid here: https://uk.emma-live.com/NightOfLight/view_lot/?id=20019110
Missing People are an independent, national charity funded by donations, and the only lifeline for missing people and their families in the UK.
Founded in 1986 by sisters Mary Asprey OBE and Janet Newman OBE, and registered as a charity in 1993, Missing People is the only UK charity that provides specialist support to people who are missing or at risk of going missing, and the families and friends left behind.
An insightful one-day course dedicated to the art of creating photobooks. This course is ideal for photographers working on a body of work with the intention of turning it into a photobook.
I will guide you through the process of making a photobook, from initial concept to final publication, and share his knowledge of collaborating with designers, printers and publishers to bring his own monographs to life.
Participants are encouraged to bring working prints or low-fi digitally printed images to the session. These will be used in hands-on exercises and provide an opportunity for feedback from both Simon and the peer group.
The course will include:
– An introductory talk, where I’ll discuss my creative practice and share my experience in producing photobooks.
– A chance for participants to introduce their photography projects and receive feedback.
– Group discussions, peer support, and practical exercises focused on editing and sequencing, helping you refine your photobook concept.
Whether you’re aiming to self-publish or seeking creative direction, this course offers a unique opportunity to gain practical insights and professional advice to help shape your photobook project.
Day: Saturday 8 March
Time: 11:00 – 17:00
Price: £140
Booking Link: www.photofusion.org/store/p/thephotobooksimonroberts
An edition of The Brexit Lexicon has been acquired by The British Library for their Contemporary British Published Collections.
The lexicon is a companion piece to my two-screen video installation of the same name. The work explores the store of metaphors and verbiage that become the stock in trade of politicians and journalists during Britain’s exit from the Europe Union. Creating a compendium of the most common terms that coloured the way Britain and the EU described the discussions associated with Brexit, the lexicon is read out by a news presenter who appears at a desk in an anonymous news television studio against a green-screen.
The publication is in a limited edition of 9 copies.
The British Library is the national library of the UK. Its remit is to build, curate and preserve the UK’s national collection of published, written and digital content. Included here are books, magazines, manuscripts, maps, music scores, newspapers, patents, databases, prints and drawings and sound recordings. It also holds an oral history collections covering a cross-section of those involved in visual arts and includes Oral History of British Photography, which is an ongoing project charting the development of photography in Britain. A great reservoir for those interested in the history of British photography.
The recently published England’s Green by Professor David Matless (pub: Reaktion Books, 2024) explores English national identity and the environment, spanning agriculture, nature and culture. The book includes reference to a photograph I made in Merrie Albion.
England is known as a ‘green and pleasant’ land, but what does this mean? England’s Green explores how the country’s connection with the environment has shaped and reflected English national identity since the 1960s, when pollution, pesticides, industrial farming and upset ecologies were presented as signs of a world gone wrong. This book examines English cultures of nature, land, farming and other ways in which humans engage with the natural world; or with a world whose naturalness seems increasingly pressured and in question.
From agriculture to nature, leisure, climate change, the folkloric, the archaeological and the mystical, David Matless uncovers the genealogies of today’s debates over land and culture, showing how twenty-first-century concerns and anxieties have been moulded by events over the past sixty years. From government policy to popular music, and from ecological polemic to television comedy, England’s Green shows the richness and complexity of English environmental culture.
1 July 2024
9781789149210
240 mm x 165 mm | 376 pages
56 illustrations
Hardback | £20
Guernsey Museum & Art Gallery have acquired a set twelve of prints from my 2022 Artist Residency.