CLAIRE CURNEEN IRISH ARTIST

Claire Curneen born in Kerry and studied at the Crawford College of Art & Design, Cork, University of Ulster, Belfast  and  University of Wales Institute Cardiff where she gained a Masters Degree in Ceramics. She is Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Ceramic Studies, UWIC, Cardiff.

Curneens  figurative ceramics command a quite yet charged presence. The figurative pieces often refer to images of Christian Iconography, quoting narratives of sacrifice and devotion. Her figures encompass elements of human experiences: love, loss, suffering and compassion. Although the work often provokes an awkward silence, they always embody hope. The translucent, delicate and the ethereal nature of porcelain lends itself to the understanding of her work. The textural finish is central to their making with dripping dribbles of glaze and gold accentuating the rich quality of the porcelain.

Claire Curneen has exhibited her work internationally including being selected for the 3rd World Ceramic Biennale at the Korea International Competition 2005 and the Taiwan International Ceramics Biennale in 2008. Her recent solo exhibitions include ‘Claire Curneen’in the Ruthin Gallery,Wales 2008, ‘Otherworldly Messages’ Galerie Marianne Heller, Germany 2009 and ‘Lost Certainty’ with Alice Kettle at Contemporary and Applied Arts, London 2011.

Urchin

Builders

Stick Figure

www.clairecurneen.com

ANDREW LIVINGSTONE BRITISH ARTIST

Dr Andrew Livingstone works as an artist and a Senior Lecturer and Subject Leader for Ceramics at the University of Sunderland. 


Andrews work uses a range of media which acknowledges the interface between both traditional practice and new media. Recent exploration aims to challenge and expand contemporary locations in respect of the traditional positioning of ceramics. The integration of digital media and new technologies has become central to his practice where new media is often positioned and juxtaposed with more traditional elements.

Investigation focuses on interpretation and reaction to situations both as a result of direct and indirect experience. The challenge to material structures and familiarity are positioned centrally as is the search for innovative outcomes that explore both process and visual significance. This often includes elements and situations that represent both micro and macro visual perspectives which in turn explore frameworks within both local and global culture.

The notion of visual complacency is a recurring event where the reading of the ‘familiar’ presents strategies for investigation. Using installation and new media, familiarity with material, artistic process, and the hand of the maker, are continually exposed and reconstructed to offer new interpretations. 

Britannia 

2010

Postmodern Animal

2010

Surfeit 621 

2011

www.andrewlivingstone.com

CLARE TWOMEY BRITISH ARTIST

Clare Twomey is a British artist, who works with clay in large-scale installations,
Sculpture and site-specific works. Over the past 10 years she has exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Tate, Crafts Council, Museum of Modern Art Kyoto Japan, the Eden Project and the Royal Academy of Arts. Within these works Twomey has maintained her concerns with materials, craft practice and historic and social context.


At the Brighton Pavilion this summer she housed thousands of black butterflies that became a veil of mourning in amongst the wonderful yet menacing rooms of the Pavilion creating a discussion about the indulgence and excess of the building and its creation.


At the Royal Academy earlier in the year she worked with the traditional flower makers in stoke on Trent to make hundreds of exotic flowers in a work titled Specimen that examined the protection of objects and the destruction of objects as the flowers were not fired and exposed to the publics touch through the exhibition. This vulnerability relates to the losing of craft skills in Stoke on Trent.


Clare Twomey is actively involved in critical research in the area of the applied arts, including writing, curating and making. She has developed work, which expands the fields’ knowledge of larger scale installation works.

Specimen

 GSK Contemporary, Earth: Art of a Changing World, The Royal Academy of Arts, London

Trophy

 Cast Courts, Victoria & Albert Museum

Monument

 Zuiderzee Museum, Holland.

 Possibilities and Losses, mima, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art

Forever

 The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas, USA

www.claretwomey.com

IRISH ARTS REVIEW AUTUMN EDITION 2011

The Shed

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3x2 Exhibition of Contemporary Clay, exhibiting six ceramic artists: Claire Curneen, Andrew Livingstone, Clare Twomey, Kate Howard, Anne O’Neill and Nuala Ní Fhlathúin 3/11/2011 - 19/11/2011

Set in a large industrial space 3x2 presents work by Claire Curneen, Andrew Livingstone and Clare Twomey three UK based ceramists at the centre of the international 'new wave' of cutting edge ceramic practice. Kate Howard, Anne O’Neill and Nuala Ní Fhlathúin are three emerging Irish ceramists whose work incorporates installation-based contemporary practices in clay and mixed media.


The exhibition aims to challenge conventional thinking behind the practice and exhibition modes of contemporary ceramics. As part of Ireland’s Year of Craft the exhibition will reflect the diversity and excitement of contemporary craft practice and importantly, assist in securing an elevated place for ceramics in the national consciousness. The core objective of this exhibition is to bring contemporary ceramics to a wider audience as well as building on the language of contemporary clay in Ireland.


Kindly supported by The Craft Council of Ireland, Galway City Council, Galway Harbour Company and Irish Ceramics in Education (ICE).