Samuel Zealey

Samuel Zealey RCA. ARRS. PSSA.  Born in East Dulwich, London, in 1986, graduated with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Wimbledon College of Art in 2008 and an MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art in 2012. Since then, Zealey has managed his own studio operation exhibiting nationally and internationally, and lecturing on the subject of Fine Art since 2016.

Early on in his career, he was a Finalist in School of Saatchi’s Best of British aired on the BBC in 2009; reaching 4th place from 22,000 applicants. Zealey has been a recipient of The Royal Society of Sculptors Bursary Award (2010), the prestigious Deutsche Bank Award for Creative Enterprises (2012), Winner of The British National Sculpture Prize with his piece Myriad (2013) and was selected as Top 10 artists Under 30 Worldwide by Artlyst (2017).

In 2020-21, Zealey was Nominated for the PSSA Excellence In Public Sculpture Award and has also been invited to residences such as the world-renowned Fundación Casa Wabi Residency Program in Mexico (2019) and AGITlab Artistic Residency Program in Portugal (2020). Zealey’s work exists on three continents as a Public Sculpture and is in private and public collections worldwide. Zealey’s sculptural works combine playfulness of form with precise engineering and
a highly developed material sensitivity.

The works radiate a lively aesthetic, alert to the ways in which art and creativity can engage with questions about culture, technology and sustainability. He has a long-standing interest in the relationship between new technologies and environmental issues.

With many of Zealey's works, his visual language highlights the use of modern technological advances that impact the environment. Zealey approaches his practice with a view to creating works that highlight the environmental problems created as a result of global warming brought about by the use of non-renewable fuels humans continue to consume and burn. In turn, his work leads to a new awareness of theories surrounding ‘Global weirding’ - a complementary term to global warming that reflects the belief that climate change will cause weather-related and natural catastrophes.