Seòras Rae
Lives and works in Glasgow, UK
b. 1990
Seòras Rae’s sculptures weave multiple narratives —
drawn from current news, historical rupture, philosophy, and symbology.
Living and working in Glasgow, Scotland,
he predominantly creates sculptural reliefs in
local timber, clay, and bronze.
His practice repositions sculptural allegory
for a presumed Western secular audience.
The works are emblematic of the separation of church and state —
yet simultaneously re-enter
the historical lineage of the human form
as a vessel for storytelling.
Seòras — previously and also known as George Rae —
studied in London and Cluj-Napoca,
later living and working in Istanbul, Milan, and Barcelona.
In his twenties, Rae’s focus was social sculpture, performance, and poetry.
The work engaged formally with new cultures and environments,
echoing — at times — the naivety and enthusiasm of Blake’s The Tyger
or Alÿs’s When Faith Moves Mountains.
Metamorphis, produced for TAP Southend (UK),
was a durational performance:
a sculpture created or named,
then carried across great distances —
its journey documented.
These works examined the evolution of movement
from the Industrial Revolution
to the post-internet era.
Dispersion (Price, 2007)
and mechanical replication of form
(Dom Sylvester Houédard, 1969)
formed a critical axis —
where the work became poetic,
aligned with Western literary epistemology.
Rae states:
“Sculpture is a connection between the past and the future
through which an audience can experience and speculate
as to what role they play
in the tapestry of actions and decision-making
moving forward.”
The Central Stone at the Summit of an Arch (2015)
extends this invitation.
Created for a group show in Maslak, Istanbul,
the work asked viewers to confront their position
within the redevelopment unfolding around them.
Responding to new media’s capacity
to amplify division within multicultural societies,
Rae produced three mezzo-basso reliefs
and six ink drawings
narrating the War in Yugoslavia.
Formally inspired by the Baptistry doors in Florence,
the series traces
the manipulative ascent of ultranationalist power
and its consequences.
Recent works draw from:
-
Calvin and Luther: The Continuing Relationship
-
Steven Sherrill’s The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break
-
Brian Catling’s The Vorrh
These works sketch scenes larger than current production capacity allows —
forming what Rae terms
“ethnographic fantasy.”
The short story The Artist and the Million
depicts two brothers clearing a house of artifacts
that tether it to both past and future.
Through ethnographic documentation —
cultural symbols, myth, tradition —
merged with fantastical reimagining,
the story reframes cultural memory
through imaginative interpretation.
More recently, Rae has shaped his subjects
to represent sexual emancipation —
interpretable as emancipation from shame.
He places them within war-scapes:
looking forward,
unaware of the precariousness
of their hard-won freedoms.
Man with Ibex (2025)
is an allegorical relief.
Civil rights
prevailing over vanity and complacency.
Inner strength
anchored in historical legacy.
The ibex — in medieval illumination and manuscript tradition,
following Isidore (after Pliny) —
appears head lowered,
horns digging into the ground.
Sometimes pursued.
Sometimes poised to leap
from a cliff’s edge.
Behind the figures:
the burning bridge over the Kerch Strait.
On 8 October 2022,
an explosion severed sections of its road and rail lines.
The bridge functions as both literal event
and metaphor —
a political analogue for the ongoing contest
between libertarianism and authoritarianism.
Visible in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Visible in pro-fascist human rights repeals
across Europe.
The work situates us —
a presumed Western secular audience —
at a moment of recognition:
We move at height
toward emancipation
and potential catastrophe.
And yet —
our horns,
if used,
will break our fall.
Seòras trained in lost-wax casting and cesello
under Mario Conti
at Fonderia Battaglia, Milan.
He assisted Alison Wilding and Susan Hiller
and completed an MA in Contemporary Art Practice
at the Royal College of Art.
Early in his career, he was a member of WAN
(We Are Nowhere / Now Here),
a post-national art collective
integral to his development —
expanding his engagement with architecture,
illustration, philosophy, pop culture,
and non-Western queer identity.
He founded
The Public Learning Workshop,
a Scottish charity
dedicated to expanding access to education
through broadcasting.
Rae was the founder of The Public Learning Workshop, a Scottish charity focused on increasing access to education through broadcasting.
Exhibitions, Professional Experience & Education
2025 ‘Bailey’ Commission
‘Convivium Coin’ Collab with Studio Lueder London Fashion Week
2024 Political Agency In Contemporary Art Symposium Spit Gallery London
Untimely meditations Radio Circolo Berlin
The Aimes Saudi Arabia
2022 ResonanceFM
Collaboration with DJ Crafton
Collaboration with Violence Grass Band
2020 Musical Score for Entanglement; the Game Part 1
Collab with Studio Lueder London Fashion Week
2019 Nu-Jazz, Palermo
2018 L￡TZ BELIEVE, Royal College of Art
Guesting on Reverie NTS Radio London
Chisello at London Bronze
2017 WIP, Royal college of Art
Guesting on Reverie NTS Radio London
Live recording for MCPS Studios Istanbul
2016 Assistant to Alison Wilding
Collaboration with AB Foundry &Rathbone Square
Not Knowing the Line, Atelier WAN, AND Space
Navid polytickle action, Peckham Rye
2015 Assistant to Susan Hiller
Putting Out a Gormley, Belenden road, London
Makers Space WAN, Maslak AutoSenayi, Istanbul
Commission for Hotel 81 Bodrum, Turkey
2014 Possibly Blue, site specific intervention, Milano
Kinetic space WAN: design week sbodio 32 Milano
Centre of Remote Possibility, Matts Gallery
Bricks installation, Parco Nationale Camogli Italy
The time is Faringdon Factory London
The time is Arcadia Missa Gallery London
2013 Artist residency at Fabrica del Valpore Milano
TAP Southend Onsite group show
Metamorphosis site specific installation
Internship at Matts Gallery London
Assistant to Guiseppe Penone
Assistant to Mike Nelson
Apprentice to Mario Conti
Education
2018 MA Art in the Public Sphere, Royal College of Art
2012 BA Fine Art, Central St Martins (continued)
2011 Erazmus Classical Sculpture, Cluj Napoca University
2010 BA Fine Art, Byam Shaw School of Art
2009 Art Foundation , Wimbledon College of Art
Please get in touch for freelance work enquiries, collaborations, and prints.
seoras.rae@proton.me
@seorasrae
© 2024 Seòras Rae
All rights reserved.
Portrait by Sean Campbell 2024