Claire Morgan is a visual artist with a strong interest in the organic, in natural processes, and in the bodily connotations of natural materials. This forms the basis for her practice as an artist creating sculptural installations and continues to influence her work at present. Her installation, entitled ‘A New Moon’, involves a giant bulb suspended from a tower crane and illuminated by hundreds of miniature lights mapping the contours of a four metre bulb.
The aspiration for this artwork was to generate a unique contrast against the winter sky, and to provoke and stimulate the audiences that came into contact with the site.
Other recent commissions include:
No Match, Helmshore Mills Textile Museum, Lancashire, UK (2012) and To Woo You, Town Hall Hotel, London (2010).]
Claire Morgan was born in Belfast and now lives in London. Since graduating in 2003, Claire has exhibited internationally, with solo exhibitions in the UK and Europe, and museum shows in US and Australia.
After showing sculptures at Palais de Tokyo and Fiac in 2009, Claire unveiled her first solo exhibition in France. Life. Blood., at Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris, received national news coverage in France, with private collectors acquiring most of the works on the opening night. Alongside suspended sculptures, this was the first time Claire exhibited the 'blood drawings' that have rapidly become her signature.
Recent exhibitions of note include Dead Or Alive, (MAD, New York), on&on, (La Casa Encendida, Madrid), Monanism, (MONA, Tasmania), and Bestes, Bestiaux, et Bestioles, where a new large-scale sculpture was commissioned by Château D'Oiron, France.
Installations and drawings are in numerous private collections in the UK, Europe and Australia, including MONA, Altana, and Guerlain.
Statement . June 2011
"My work is about our relationship with the rest of nature, explored through notions of change, the passing of time, and the transience of everything around us. For me, creating seemingly solid structures or forms from thousands of individually suspended elements has a direct relation with my experience of these forces. There is a sense of fragility and a lack of solidity that carries through all the sculptures. I feel as if they are somewhere between movement and stillness, and thus in possession of a certain energy.
Animals, birds and insects have been present in my recent sculptures, and I use suspense to create something akin to freeze frames. In some works, animals might appear to rest, fly or fall through other seemingly solid suspended forms. In other works, insects appear to fly in static formations. The evidence of gravity - or lack of it - inherent in these scenarios is what brings them to life, or death.
I feel a close connection with the natural world which I hope is evident in my work, but our clumsy, often destructive relationship with nature, and the 'artificial' world we have contrived for ourselves are of equal significance. Ultimately I find myself focussing on areas where the boundaries cannot be clearly defined.
The titles of the works are very important, and often make reference to historical or contemporary popular culture, words being appropriated from the titles of films or books, or phrases being manipulated through combination with the artwork. These connections often add a comedic element to the works, a sense of irony or bluntness that keeps them firmly rooted in my experience of the world that we humans inhabit. Though the phrases have a specific history, the jarring between the title and the form can bring a desirable ambiguity through intentionally creating confusion.
The processes involved in the work are laborious and there are thousands of individual elements involved, but clarity of form is of high importance. I do not wish the animals to provide a narrative, but rather to introduce an element of movement, or energy, or some sort of reality; animating or interacting with the larger architectural forms.
QUALIFICATIONS
2000-2003 First Class, BA (Hons) Fine Art (Sculpture), University of Northumbria
1999-2000 Distinction, Foundation Studies in Art and Design, University of Ulster
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2012
Quietus, Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris - Opens 8th September
2011
Menagerie, Kunstverein Münsterland, Coesfeld
Terminal, Centre for Recent Drawing, London
Under The Sun, Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne
About Time, Hub National Centre for Craft and Design, Lincolnshire
2010
Life. Blood., Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris
2008
Periphery, James Hockey and Foyer Galleries, UCA, Surrey
Gone With The Wind, Great North Run Cultural Programme, The Laing Gallery, Newcastle
Chasing Rainbows, Selfridges, London
The Fall, curated by Adventure Ecology, The East Room, London
2007
If you go down to the woods today, The Hospital, London
Head in the Clouds, Wooda Farm, Cornwall
2006
Crowdpleaser, Persistence Works Studios, Sheffield
2005
Hunter Gatherer, OMAC, Belfast
2004
"All that is solid...", Grosvenor Chapel, Mayfair, London
Emotional Response, Lagan Lookout, Belfast
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
2012
Death, SHOWstudio Shop, London
Making Waves: International Contemporary Art from the Saatchi Collection, Hyatt Regency London - The Churchill, London
Asthetik Der Natur, Sinclair Haus, Bad Homburg, Germany
100 Sculptures Animalieres: Bugatti, Pompon, Giacometti..., LM-A30, Paris
The Bones of My Hand, The Last Tuesday Society, London
2011
Nature - Contemporary Art from the collection of the Altana Cultural Foundation, Karl Ernst Osthausmuseum, Hagen
On Paper III, Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris
Anthro[physis], Rivera & Rivera Gallery, West Hollywood, LA
Bêtes Off, La Conciergerie, Paris
Bestes, Bestiaux, et Bestioles, Château D'Oiron, France
Monanism, MONA (The Museum of Old and New Art), Tasmania
Compulsive, Obsessive, Repetitive, Towner Gallery, Eastbourne
Counterpoint, Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast
Suspense, EX3 Centre for Contemporary Art, Florence
Lumiere International Light Festival, Durham, UK
Disconnected Everyday Tensions, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast
2010
Dead or Alive, Museum of Art and Design, New York
On&on, La Casa Encendida, Madrid (curated by Flora Fairbairn and Olivier Varenne)
Heart of Glass, 20 Hoxton Square, London
Enragés, Fondation Francès, Senlis, France
Resilience, Espace d'art contemporain La Tôlerie, Clermont Ferrand, France
Tracing Reality, Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, Zurich
2009
Consumer, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (curated by COAL)
Editions, Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast
Caught In A Moment, ROLLO Contemporary Art, London
Building With Colour, Gallery North, Newcastle upon Tyne
2008
Landscape, 18 @ 108, Royal British Society of Sculptors, London
EchO wanted, Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris
Domestico, Ierimonti Gallery, Milan
Jerwood Drawing Prize 2007, touring to various venues nationally
2007
Radiance 07, Glasgow's International Festival of Light, Glasgow
Die Green, Live Pretty?, curated by Adventure Ecology, hosted by Pia Getty, London
Miniartextil 2007, Church of San Francesco, Arte & Arte, Como, Italy
Jerwood Drawing Prize 2007, Jerwood Space, London, touring nationally
Waste and The Natural World, The Gallery @ Adventure Ecology, London
2006
Your Gallery @ The Guardian, The Guardian Gallery in association with the Saatchi Gallery, London
Unnatural Selection, Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery, Shropshire
Inside Out at Cragside, Northumberland, works commissioned by National Trust
Premio Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro, Prize for Young Sculptors, Fondazione Pomodoro, Milan
2005
Out There, (CAN 05), Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich
Sculpture at Hebden Bridge, Hardcastle Crags, Yorkshire
Bolwick Arts 3, Bolwick Hall, Norfolk
2004
RBS Bursary 2004, RBS Gallery, 108 Centre, London
Exposure, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
2003
Shrewsbury Sotheby's Exhibition, Shrewsbury Art gallery, Shropshire
2002
Konturen, Kloster Bentlage, Rheine, Germany
RECENT ART FAIRS
2011 Salon du Dessin, Art Cologne, Art Basel, Fiac (with Galerie Karsten Greve)
2010 Art Cologne, FIAC (with Galerie Karsten Greve)
2009 FIAC (with Galerie Karsten Greve)
2008 DNA @ Form Art and Design Fair, London
AWARDS, BURSARIES,
2007
COURVOISIER® The Future 500 rising stars - ranked top 10 Art & Design in The Observer
Jerwood Drawing Prize 2007 - shortlisted
2006
Your Gallery @ The Guardian, voted top 10 artists on www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/yourgallery
Premio Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro, first prize for 'Red or Dead'
2004
Roy Noakes Award, selected by Royal British Society of Sculptors
Royal British Society of Sculptors, Annual Bursary Award
2003
Short-listed for the Shrewsbury Sotheby's Prize & winner of the Peoples Choice Prize
RESIDENCIES
2011
Artist in Residence at Helmshore Mills Textile Museum, Rossendale
2007
Artist in Residence at Adventure Ecology
Wooda Arts Award, February - March, Wooda Farm, Cornwall
2006
8 week 'Art and the Public Realm' residency at Persistence Works, Sheffield
Artist in Residence, Belfast Print Workshop, Northern Ireland
2005
Out There, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich
Bolwick arts 3, a site-specific art residency at Bolwick Hall, Norfolk
2003
Fine Art Fellowship, Northumbria University, School of Art
2002
Konturen, a 10-day international workshop, based in Bentlage, Germany
SELECTED COMMISSIONS
2012
No Match, Helmshore Mills Textile Museum, Lancashire, UK
2010
To Woo You, Town Hall Hotel, London
2009
Canopy, The Big Chill Festival 2009, Herefordshire
Pressure Makes Diamonds, Assembly Square, Cardiff Bay
2008
Untitled seasonal installations designed in collaboration with Selfridge's
Spooning, Sheffield Millennium Galleries, Sheffield
Re(a)d, HLC, Telford
2007
Vital Signs, Cardiff University
2006
A New Moon (below), toured to Bristol Broadmeads
Rising Tide, Temporary Address, Blyth, Northumberland
2005
A New Moon, Whitstable Harbour, commissioned by Canterbury Council
Shift, Tynemouth Station, Tyne and Wear, commissioned by Nexus
2004
Leave, Westonbirt Festival of the Garden 2004
Parallel, Grainger Market, Art in the Market, Newcastle upon Tyne
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
100 sculptures animalieres, Bugatti, Pompon, Giacometti..., Somogy Editions d'Art 2012 (cat)
Erratic: Visual Impact in Current Design, Gestalten 2011
Betes Off, MEditions du Patrimoine 2011 (cat)
Monanisms, Museum of Old and New Art 2011 (cat)
Suspense, Damiani, 2011 (cat)
On&on, La Casa Encendida 2010 (cat)
Dead or Alive, Museum of Arts and Design 2010 (cat)
3D Typography, Mark Batty, Thames and Hudson 2010
Editions, Belfast Print Workshop 2009 (cat)
Periphery, James Hockey and Foyer Galleries 2008 (cat)
Jerwood Drawing Prize 2007, Wimbledon College of Art 2007 (cat)
Filare Il Tempo, miniartextilcomo 2007, Arte & Arte 2007 (cat)
8 Weeks, Yorkshire ArtSpace Residency Programme, Yass 2007
Die Green Live Pretty?, Arts Co and Pia Getty 2007 (cat)
Crowdpleaser, Art Editions North, Cornerhouse 2007 (monograph)
Premio Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro, 2006 (cat)
Sparks, Insite Arts 2006
COLLECTIONS
Installations and works on paper are in numerous private collections in the UK, Europe and Australia, including MONA, Altana, Guerlain
Claire Morgan is represented by GALERIE KARSTEN GREVE
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