Working with photography, sculpture, installation, drawing and video, Simon Terrill’s work investigates relations between architectural spaces and their received narratives, public and private identities, and the idea of the crowd as a tool to examine architecture, identity, community and a performance of self. His ongoing Crowd Theory project consists of large-scale stage-managed public events resulting in exhibitions at the sites of their creation along with collaborations with museums and public galleries to extend these images and stories outwards.

Born 1969 in Melbourne, VIC, Terrill lives and works in London, UK. He received both Bachelor of Fine Art (1998) and Master of Fine Art (2005) from the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, in addition to a Graduate Affiliate degree from the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London in 2009. Terrill is currently a Course Director and Senior Lecturer at London’s South Bank University. 

For almost three decades Terrill has exhibited widely across Australia and the UK. Terrill has presented solo exhibitions at institutions including the National Portrait Gallery, London, 2016; Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, 2019; Samstag Museum of Art, Adelaide, 2013; Casula Powerhouse, Syndey, 2006 and Westspace, Melbourne, 2005, among others. His work has been featured in important group shows including Civilisation: The Way We Live Now, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2019; The Piranesi Effect, Ian Potter Museum, Melbourne, 2014; Recontres d’Arles, Parc des Ateliers, Arles, France, 2012; Negotiating This World: Contemporary Australian Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2012; Perfect for every occasion – Photography today, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 2007. 

Since 2015, Terrill has collaborated with London-based, Turner-prize nominated Assemble Studios on The Brutalist Playground project. Designed for the Architecture Gallery at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), London, the iterative project takes the shape of an immersive installation recreating a trio of post-war play structures out of foam. The Brutalist Playground has since toured internationally, with presentations at the Incinerator Gallery, Melbourne, 2025; Kunsthall Oslo, Norway, 2019; Kunsthalle Zurich, Switzerland, 2016; Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen, UK, 2015, and S1 Artspace, Sheffield, UK, 2015.

Examples of Terrill’s work can be found in major public collections across Australia, including National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; State Library of Victoria, Melbourne; City of Melbourne, Melbourne; Australian Centre for Moving Image (ACMI), Melbourne; Monash University, Melbourne; Samstag Museum of Art, Adelaide; Murray Art Museum Albury (MAMA), Albury, among others.