Biography
International Artist / Sculptor
Claire Davenhall is an International Artist who graduated from Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art Sculpture and studied at both North Karelia Polytechnic in Finland and Athens School of Fine Art. In 2004, she graduated with a Post Graduate Certificate in Art Education from Lancaster University and became a Lecturer in Fine Art Sculpture, Ceramics, Life Drawing & Photography, where she was proudly awarded WINNER of the ‘Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching & Learning’ and was nominated for two ‘National Beacon Award in Art & Design’ in 2006/7.
She migrated to Western Australia at the end of 2007, where she exhibits her work in beautiful locations such as Sculpture by the Sea, Swell Sculpture Festival, Castaways and Brighton Jetty Sculptures. She was awarded the winner of the Shinju Matsuri ‘A View to Asia’ in Broome 2016 and a major prize winner of the Drift Installation Awards 2017. She won the International Guest Panellist’s Choice Award, at the prestigious Walker Gallery in the UK, where her art events from Western Australia were recognised as having innovation and excellence worldwide. Claire received a Creative Development Grant from the Department of Culture & the Arts in 2018 to represent WA at Sculpture at Scenic World in NSW, where she exhibited alongside world-class artists.
Recently, she received an Honorable Mention Award, for participation with distinction in the International CFA Artist of the Year Awards in 2019 with her sculpture Lost Soles at Sea. In 2021 she exhibited at the International Indian Ocean Craft Triennial IOTA21. Her work has been published in a number of art books such as Artist of Perth 2017, International Contemporary Masters Vol 14 2021 and The Power of Creativity 2022.
Artist Statement
Her current solo-touring exhibition ‘Lost Soles’ explores the migration of people to Australia, taking inspiration from found objects to reveal the hidden stories and provide historical identity to the lost souls sent beyond the seas.
She tells the story of their extraordinary existence, from the ‘Lost Soles at Sea’ that observes the inhuman amounts of people who have boarded boats in search of a better life, their lost souls, drifting in a sea of knowledge in a vessel of hope. Her work makes social comments from the pressures placed on the early settlers and the constraints they endured, to the journey of the migrant refugees and convicts, travelling across the sea, in their search to reach a land of hope and dreams. She explores the strength of family connection and bonds that tie us together through the journey of life and takes her inspiration from poems and found objects.
Her work invites the viewer to take a closer look and brings together a sense of people and place through art.
Website: https://clairedavenhallvisualartist.wordpress.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/clairedavenhallvisualartist
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clairedavenhall
