Statement and Biography
Artist Statement
My work explores themes and concepts around contested territories and histories through painting, video and installation. This new body of work attempts to navigate the complexity of the contemporary theatre of war as battlefield expands to battlespace in the information age. The covert machinations of the perpetual war that is arms deals, mercenaries, remote surveillance programmes and drone warfare away from the lens of the media.
The paintings employ imagery from the media, surveillance, military history, maps, archaeology, early civilization, bible stories and from the canon of art history of Byzantine and Early Renaissance to weave together a narrative through painting. I am influenced by the complex compositions of space and time in Renaissance paintings allowing multiple narratives to co-exist in the same picture plane and use these compositional devices in my work with reference to the aesthetic of gaming and virtual reality. In the Citadel Series the images are isolated from source and context like props suspended in time without context as to their significance as elements in a complex narrative of a contested territory.
The themes in the work concern the perception and interpretation of images. – how the reading of images and their resonance is influenced by how they are created, depicted and the context in which they are viewed. I strive to create work that raises questions about how we choose to record history and the veracity of painting, photography, and the media in documenting future history.
Claire Halpin, 2023
Artist Biography
Claire Halpin graduated from D.I.T, Dublin with B.A Honours in Painting (1996) and went on to complete her Masters in Fine Art at Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, Scotland (1998).
In 2021, IMMA/ Irish Museum of Modern Art acquired three paintings from the Jigmap Series for the IMMA Collection. They were on exhibition at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Chapter Four of The Narrow Gate of the Here and Now: Protest and Conflict at IMMA from November 2021 – January 2023.
Claire’s recent solo exhibitions include –Primo Piatto at Gallery Cabaret Voltaire, Rome, Augmented Auguries at Olivier Cornet Gallery, Dublin; DECK – A Collection of Found Playing Cards at The LAB Gallery, Dublin (2022) and Raw War (2019) and Glomar Response (2016) at Olivier Cornet Gallery, Dublin, Reconstructions at Talbot Gallery in 2011 and at Droichead Arts Centre in 2012. Other solo exhibitions include: Tabula Rasa at Cavan County Museum (2011), Anaesthetic Aesthetics at Rua Red, Tallaght (2010), Always Now at Talbot Gallery, Dublin (2008), Eidetic Amalgams at Basement Gallery, Dundalk (2006) and at Triskel Arts Centre, Cork, and Model Arts Centre, Sligo.
Claire has exhibited widely in group exhibitions in Ireland and internationally including – Annual Winter Exhibition, Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin, Summer Exhibition, Red Sheep Gallery, Klockestrand Skolhus, Sweden; Chaos/ Order, dlr Open Exhibition, Municipal Gallery, dlr LexIcon, Twenty One, Mermaid Arts Centre, Co.Wickow, 191st Royal Hibernian Academy Annual Exhibition, Dublin 2021, Highlanes Open Submission 2020, Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda; 38th EVA International, Ireland’s Biennial, Limerick City 2018 (Curator Inti Guerrero); ; Cáirde Visual, The Model, Sligo 2019; Utopia Dystopia, dlr Open Exhibition, Municipal Gallery, dlr LexIcon, Dún Laoghaire, 2019; Drawing on Don Quixote, Olivier Cornet Gallery, Dublin; Leinster Printmakers 20 years, National Touring Exhibition, Ireland 2019; Sculpture in Context 2023, Botanic Gardens, Dublin; Water Tower Art Festival, Sofia, Bulgaria and The Bulgarians are coming, Standpoint Gallery, London, In The Crossfire, Refugee Week Exhibition 2023, Jubilee Library, Brighton, UK.
In 2018 Claire was shortlisted for the prestigious Savills Art Prize at VUE Art Fair, RHA Dublin and in 2017 won the dlr Open Award at the Municipal Gallery, dlr LexIcon selected by art critic – Gemma Tipton.
Claire solo shows at Olivier Cornet Gallery, Dublin were Augmented Auguries (2022) opened by artist Joy Gerrard, Raw War (2019) opened by Aoife Ruane, Director, Highlanes Gallery and Glomar Response (2016) opened by artist Brian Fay.
Collections
Claire’s paintings are included in many national, university, corporate and private collections in Ireland and abroad including
IMMA/ Irish Museum of Modern Art Collection
Trinity College Art Collection
TU Dublin, University Art Collection
Louth County Council Collection
Cavan County Council Collection
Imago Mundi, Benetton International Art Collection
AXA Insurance, A.I.B Art Collection, The Four Seasons Hotel, Clarion Hotels, Blackrock Hospice Foundation, Smirnoff Collection.
Curation
Claire has also curated many exhibitions including most recently:
What Do You See? A VTS Selected Collection Exhibition with Kieran Gallagher, Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda (2022) ; A Collection of Conversations – A Dementia Inclusive Exhibition, Highlanes Gallery and Municipal Gallery, dlr LexIcon (2022) ; ; Taisce Lú – A Curator’s Choice, Louth County Council Collection, Basement Gallery, Dundalk and Droichead Arts Centre; Concerning the Other at Olivier Cornet Gallery with Olivier Cornet and Eoin Mac Lochlainn; And the Women Voted, Women Artists from the AIB Art Collection at DLR LexIcon, Dún Laoghaire, Co.Dublin; Finders and Keepers, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Arts Office/ OPW Art Collection at DLR LexIcon, Dún Laoghaire, Co.Dublin, The Palimpsest/ Rianú Project at The Pearse Museum, Dublin/ Tbilisi History Museum, Georgia (2013-14) with Eoin Mac Lochlainn, Fast Moving Consumer Goods, Talbot Gallery, Dublin (2012) with Elaine Grainger. In 2013 Claire was invited to curate Ireland’s representation at Artisterium VI, Tbilisi International Contemporary Art Exhibition, Tbilisi, Georgia.
Full CV can be viewed here:
.
Claire Halpin Artist 
Leave a comment