In Conversation with Queer Britain: Meet the Artist - Claye Bowler

W London
10 Wardour Street, London, W1D 6QF (view map)

Wednesday 17th September 2025 at 6:30 PM

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In Conversation with Queer Britain: Meet the Artist - Claye Bowler

Join us in celebrating the London debut of TOP, a powerful solo exhibition by artist Claye Bowler, with a special conversation between the Claye Bowler and E-J Scott, curator and creator of the Museum of Transology.

Exploring themes of trans identity, healthcare, and resilience, TOP is a moving installation that documents Bowler’s six-year journey through the UK healthcare system to obtain top surgery. Originally shown at the Henry Moore Institute, this marks the first time the work will be exhibited in London.

The conversation will delve into the creative process behind the exhibition, the emotional and political significance of the work, and how art can be a tool for visibility, healing, and change.

"This work directly responds to the process of endurance trans people must employ when trying to gain access to the healthcare they need. Claye's artistic output makes a conceptual link between archiving-the-self as a record that fixes the passing of time with the live enactment of physical change. In this way, his sculpture is both highly situated and yet, reactionary; somehow as frustrating as it is liberating. The nuances of transitioning are often disregarded by more predictable artistic renditions of trans coming-of-age narratives. The complexity of this piece situates Claye's work at the cutting-edge of trans artistic expression in the UK today, because it prods the viewer to actively explore and research his experience, instead of allowing them to lazily stare and glare."

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The Lineup

Claye Bowler
Claye Bowler (b.1995) is part of a generation of artists to emerge in Yorkshire over the last five years that continues the important history of sculpture in this county. He follows a tradition of making that began in the 1960s, especially in the UK and the USA, in which artists use their own bodies as both a subject and a material. Approaching everything with a sculptor’s mindset, he makes objects, works on paper, video and performance.
Top 2022 contains work made since 2016, although is conceived as a single installation. It reveals Bowler’s own history, a trans history, that while autobiographical has much in common with trans people globally. The installation comprises work created during the process of obtaining top surgery (an operation to remove chest or breast tissue) within the UK healthcare system. The procedure took six years from Bowler’s first visit to a GP, to his recovery after surgery revisions earlier this year.
E-J Scott
E-J Scott (UK Museum Activist Award, 2020/21) is an academic and curator. Their co-curatorial practice focusses on engaging historically misrepresented communities to harness their collective agency in museum and heritage spaces. E-J founded the Museum of Transology (2014), Trans Pride UK (2023) and the British Digital Art Network (Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art/ACE/Yale/Tate, 2022). Queer heritage projects they’ve driven include: DUCKIE’s Vintage Clubbing Series, West Yorkshire Queer Stories and the annual Queer and Now festival at Tate Britain (2017-2023).
E-J is the Stage 2 and 3 Leader of the BA (Hons) Culture, Curation & Criticism at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. They recently co-authored the Trans-Inclusive Culture: Guidance for museums, galleries, archives and heritage organisations (2023) with the University of Leicester’s Research Centre for Museums and Galleries, shortlisted for the Museums + Heritage Sector Impact Award (2024).

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In Conversation with Queer Britain: Meet the Artist - Claye Bowler

The Lineup

What You Need To Know

Organised By

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Tickets

Location

Other Events

Activism and Social Change Panel Discussion

AMPLIFIED ft. Sounds Queer (live)

Club Stamina Takes Over W London - London Pride

In Conversation with Queer Britain: Telling South Asian Queer Stories

Download The App

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S.L.A.G.S with The D.E Experience