CLAIRE CURNEEN
CURRENT + RECENT EXHIBITIONS
EXPOSED: Heads, Busts & Nudes
As one of the UK’s foremost ceramicists Claire Curneen’s work is distinct for its figuration. She is also a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Ceramic Studies, Cardiff Metropolitan University.
Spanning nearly 20 years as a practicing artist, Curneen’s works, ranging from small scale porcelain pieces to a large terracotta figure installed on the exterior of a Guildhall, explore grand themes about the body and the human condition.
Notable for her application of hand-building, pinching and applying clay in patches that registers the artist’s hand and flesh in the surface of the clay, Curneen produces highly visceral works, which tap into of our deepest desires, fears and mysteries. Referencing Roman Catholic imagery and ideology and early Italian Renaissance paintings such as Piero Della Francesca’s ‘Baptism of Christ’, these figures bear bold narratives of saints, martyrs and rites of passage punctuated by often delicate yet dramatic totems to death, re-birth and the sublime.
In 2011 Curneen received one of the Arts Council of Wales’s most prestigious accolades, a Creative Wales Ambassador Award, and has embarked upon a new body of work inspired by research she will be conducting into the National Museum of Ireland’s collections. Her award also includes use of a drawing studio at The Mission Gallery, Swansea.
Curneen’s work can be seen in over 20 public collections, including the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; National Museums and Galleries of Wales, Cardiff; Taipei Ceramics Museum, Taiwan and the Crafts Council, London.
Videos about the artist talking about her work can be seen on her website here.
CURRENT PROJECT
‘Guardian’ 2012, Porcelain, cobalt, glaze, gold lustre
The title for this piece extends my ongoing interest into religious iconography of Italian Renaissance Painting, in particular ‘Tobias and the Angel’ 1470-1475 by Verrocchio. The story explains how the young Tobias, sets out on a long journey to recover a debt for his blind father, he meets another traveller, the Archangel Rapheal, who guides him and protects him. Guardian explores some of these themes focusing on the intimacy of the relationship. The figure is printed with rich cobalt blue, like chinese blue and white porcelain, which communicates the historical imprint in which a ceramic object can hold, charged with a sense of its own history. Like ‘Tobias and the Angel’ it is witness to the changing world. This figure stands looking forward, it holds back a part of itself in order to act as a guardian, a protector, potent and rich in meaning.
Bio
Born: 1968, Ireland
Education
1999-92
University of Wales Institute Cardiff, Master’s Degree in Ceramics
1986-90
Crawford College of Art & Design, Cork, Ireland, Diploma in Art and Design
1990-91
University of Ulster, Belfast, Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Arts
Upcoming, Current & Recent Exhibitions
2016
EXPOSED: Heads, Busts, Nudes, Ferrin Contemporary, North Adams, MA
Bernadaud: My Blue China, Ariana Museum, Geneva, Switzerland
2015
To This I Put My Name, Hans Peter Dähler, Solothurn, Switzerland
2014
To This I Put My Name, Ruthin Craft Center, Ruthin, Denbighshire, Wales and Harley Gallery, Notinghamshire, England
2013
New Blue and White, Museum of Fine Art, Boston, USA
Public Collections
Ulster Museum, Belfast
Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland
Crafts Council, London
Limerick City Art Gallery, Limerick, Ireland
National Museums and Galleries of Wales, Cardiff, UK
Sara and David Lieberman Collection, Arizona State University, USA.
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Shipely Art Gallery, Tyne & Wear Museums, Gateshead, UK
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK
Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece
Aberystwyth Arts Centre. Wales, UK
Cleveland Crafts Centre, Middlesbrough, UK
Icheon World Ceramic Centre, Korea
National Museum of Scotland
Oldham Museum, Manchester, UK
York Museum, England, UK
Taipei Ceramics Museum, Taiwan
Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, UK
Mint Museum, Charlotte, Carolina, USA
Kennedy Museum of Art, USA
Past Exhibitions
2012
Never Never, Aberystwyth Arts Centre
Reflection, Galerie Kunstforum Solothurn, Switzerland
New World: Timeless Vision, IAC exhibition, New Mexico Museum of Art, USA
2011
Beaux Arts, Bath (solo)
Placement, Ceramic Connections Wales/Scotland, Oriel Davies, Mid Wales
Lost Certainty, Claire Curneen and Alice Kettle, CAA, London
3×2: The Shed, Galway, Ireland
2010
Pretty young Things, Lacoste Gallery, Boston, USA
Claire Curneen and Olivia Chargue, Le Don du Fel, France
Passage, Craft in the Bay, Cardiff, Wales
Parings, a collaboration with textile designer Alison Welsh, MMU Manchester
Contemporary British Studio Ceramics, The Grainer Collection, Mint Museum, Charlotte, USA
2009
British Ceramics, Bavarian Crafts Council, Germany
Otherworldly Messages, Galerie Marianne Heller, Germany
Collect, Saatchi Galleries, CAA London
2008
Myths and Legends, Contemporary Applied Arts, London
Claire Curneen, Ruthin Craft Centre, Wales (solo, catalogue)
2007
Secondary Relics, Blackswan Gallery, Frome, England
Menschenbild, Galerie Kunstforum, Solothurn, Switzerland
2006
Collect at the V&A, Ruthin Craft Centre.
One Piece one Artist, Galerie Marianne Heller, Germany
Narratives Glynn Vivian Gallery, Swansea.
Collecting Contemporary Ceramics, Ruthin Craft Centre, Wales
The Human Condition, the Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
Figurative Ceramics, Cervini Haas Gallery, Scottsdale, USA
2005
Showcase at Manchester Art Gallery (DVD,catalogue and slide set)
The International Art & Design Fair, New York, represented by Adrian Sassoon
2004
Succour- Claire Curneen, The Gallery, Ruthin Craft Centre (solo, catalogue)
Faith, Nottingham Castle Museum (catalogue)
Collect at the V&A, represented by CAA London
SOFA Chicago, represented by CLAY, LA
2003
Flower Power, Norfolk Museum and Archaeology Service and Sheffield Galleries and Museum Trust (catalogue)
Telltale, Narratives in Contemporary Craft, Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead (catalogue)
Augenblicken, Kunstforum Kirchberg, Switzerland
2002
Claire Curneen and Heather Belcher, Contemporary Applied Arts, London
SOFA Chicago, USA
2001
Figurative Ceramics, Crafts Council shop at The V&A, London
2000
Made at the Clay Studio, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA
Figurative Ceramics, Nancy Margolis Gallery, NewYork.
1999
New Masters Old Masters, Oxford Gallery, Oxford.
Firing Imagination, British Council Exhibition, Sao Paulo (catalogue)
1998
Ceramic Series/Claire Curneen, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, (catalogue)
1997
New Work, Claire Curneen, Ruthin Craft Centre, Wales (solo, catalogue)
1996
Philip Eglin and Claire Curneen, Contemporary Applied Arts, London
Awards and Competitions
2012
Creative Wales Ambassador Award. ‘The Museum Object as a point of Reference’.
2008
Taiwan International Ceramics Biennale Competition, Taipei Ceramic Museum.
2005
Creative Wales Award, Arts Council of Wales
Selected for 3rd World Ceramic Biennale, Korea International Competition
2004
Selected for 1st European Ceramics Competition, Greece.
2003
Shortlist for the Arts Foundation Award for Ceramics, U.K.
2001
National Eisteddfod of Wales, Gold Medal in Craft & Design
2001
Le Prix de I’AMN, Porcelain Triennale, Nyon
Selected for the 52nd International Competition for Contemporary Ceramic Art, Faenza, Italy
1999
Ceramics Monthly Magazine, Winner of the Sculpture category
1995
Crafts Council Setting up grant
Professional Memberships
Selected Makers slide index, Crafts Council, London
Contemporary Applied Arts
International Academy of Ceramics, Geneva
Periodicals
Ceramics Arts and Perception, review of “Pretty Young Things”, Lacoste Gallery, Massachusetts by Christine Temin, 2011
Ceramics Arts and Perception, article by Alex McErlain, Issue 62, 2005/2006
New Ceramics, Issue 5, 2005, profile on Claire Curneen by Amanda Fielding (German & English)
Keramik Magazin, Issue 4, 2003, “Contemplation”, by Ian Wilson
Kerameiki Techni, Issue 42, 2002, “The Role of Narrative in Claire Curneen’s Ceramics” by Natasha Mayo.
Ceramic Review, Issue 195, 2002, “A Melancholy Beauty”, by Nicolas Lees
Ceramics Art and Perception, Issue 38 1999, “Searching for Answers”, by Sarah James
Ceramic Monthly, International Competition, 1999
Books
2010
Contemporary British Studio Ceramics, Yale Unversity Press, New Haven and London with the Mint Museum of Craft + Design, North Carolina
‘Pairings’, Monologues & Dialogues, MMU.
Fanning, Micheal. Ghost Trawler, a poetry book. The publication is a collaboration between artists and the poet. Published by Sommerville Press, Ireland.
2009
Whiting, David. Modern British Studio Ceramics and their Studios, photography Jay Goldmark.
Cooper, Emmanuel. ‘Contemporary Ceramics’ A Global Survey of Trends and Traditions, Thames and Hudson,
Breaking the Mould, Black Dog Publishing, UK
Masters in Porcelain, Lark Books, USA
Schwartz, Judith. Confrontational Ceramics, USA
Ming, Bai. World Famous Ceramic Artist Studios, (Volume 1, Europe)
2004
500 Figures in Clay, Lark Books, USA
2002
Flynn, Michael. Ceramic Figures. A&C Black Ltd.
Waller, Jane. The Human Form in Clay, Crowood Press Ltd.
2001
Blandino, Betty. The Figure in Fired Clay, A&C Black Ltd.
Residencies
2000
The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, USA
Crawford Arts Centre, St.Andrews, Scotland, funded by Artworks Wales.
Television and Radio
‘Kaleidoscope’ BBC Radio 4, 1997, review of Ruthin exhibition by Emanuel Cooper
‘The Art’. BBC 2, short film of artist at work.
Lecturing
Senior Lecturer, Centre for Ceramic Studies, Cardiff Metropolitian University
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