Size:
69.3 x 57.5 cm
Medium:
C-type print incl frame
Year:
2018
About the artist
Harley Weir’s aesthetic in both her photography and film work references historical precedents and contemporary portraiture and revels in a candid naturalism.
Soft Strength
Harley Weir
69.3 x 57.5 cm
C-type print incl frame
Harley Weir (b. 1988, Surrey, UK) lives and works in London. In 2010 she graduated from Central St Martins with a BA in Fine Art. Weir’s aesthetic in both her photography and film work references historical precedents and contemporary portraiture and revels in a candid naturalism. Her strikingly organic compositions seem to be made out of the same colour and textures as an Egon Schiele painting. Her photographs are mysterious and unguarded, and there is something personal and pure about the way that she captures her subjects. Weir is a self-taught photographer, working with both analogue and digital techniques and enjoying the opportunities for experimentation offered by the darkroom and in post-production.
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"I’m interested in the more grotesque side of beauty, that’s what I find most beautiful. There’s a grotesqueness that is inherent in me."
‘The Garden: chapter 2’ by Harley Weir, brings together new and archival works, merging Weir’s signature visual intensity with a tender, restless nostalgia. Exploring the garden as a space of beginning and ending, Weir reflects on the tension between the ideal and the real.
Across photography, handmade paper, and darkroom experimentation, Weir traces themes of womanhood, desire, growth, and transformation. Personal archive meets alchemy: letters, dried flowers, and adolescent memories become new works; images dissolve into abstraction through unconventional materials.
A study of what nurtures us; and what we leave behind.
SOLO SHOWS
The Garden, Hannah Barry Gallery, London, UK (2025);
Sins of a daughter, Hannah Barry Gallery, London, UK (2022);
Walls, MEP, Paris, FR (2020);
Homes, Fabrica Gallery, Brighton Photo Biennial, Brighton, UK (2018);
Boundaries, Foam, Amsterdam, NL (2017).
Recent group exhibitions include
All Fours, Homecoming Gallery, Amsterdam, NL (2025);
Ponyshow – a group exhibition supporting LA Fire Relief, organized by Amity, Los Angeles, US (2025);
Domestic Rituals, Foreign Entities, Indecisive Hosts, Numeroventi, Paris, FR (2024); SHADOW-BAN, SHOWstudio, London, UK (2024);
Masquerade, makeup & Ensor, MoMu – ModeMuseum, Antwerp, BE (2024);
Fragile Beauty: Photographs from the Sir Elton John and David Furnish Collection, V&A South Kensington, London, UK (2024);
Sin Centre, Hannah Barry Gallery, London, UK (2024);
Epoch Review, Permanent Files, Paris, FR (2024);
ECHO. Wrapped in Memory, MoMu, Antwerp, BE (2023);
You May Find Yourself… Just Stop Oil, Koppel X, London, UK (2023);
Dream Journal, Company Gallery, New York, US (2023); Girls Girls Girls, Lismore Castle Arts, Waterford, IE (2022);
Old Friends, New Friends, Collective Ending HQ, London, UK (2021);
Crowd, Hannah Barry Gallery, London (2020);
CLAY, T J Boulting, London (2020);
Transformer: A Rebirth of Wonder, 180 The Strand, London (2019).
Weir has published multiple books with Beauty Papers, IDEA, Baron Books, and Loose Joints. Her work is included in Sir Elton John and David Furnish Collection.