Simon Perry is a British born contemporary artist who lives and works in Melbourne. Over four decades the focus of his art practice has been in the field of sculpture and the related disciplines of drawing and art in public space. He has produced a broad range of significant public artworks and exhibited widely in public and private galleries and institutions, both in Australia and overseas.
Perry trained in London at Chelsea School of Art and the Royal Academy Schools where he received several awards including the Royal Academy Gold Medal for Sculpture and the Landseer Award. He was also the recipient of the Rome Prize in 1987 enabling to live and study in Rome and Italy.
In tandem with his art practice, Perry is a senior lecture and academic at RMIT University’s School of Art, teaching across undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral programs. In 2020, Perry completed a Ph D at RMIT University titled Sculpture and the Contested Ground of Public and Private Space. His doctoral project investigated relationships between sculptural models and public monuments and revealed the contested fields of public and private space, and how historical tensions between the sacred and profane are still evident today.
