Artist’s Statement
Clare Cowley works in visual and sound mediums, responding to colour, form and line in nature with themes from dreams, memory & storytelling.
Biography
I am an interdisciplinary artist from Allora Queensland, currently based in Meanjin/Brisbane. I graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art in Honours at Queensland College of Art, Griffith University. I completed a printmaking internship at QCA. And have worked a as an Art Tutor at Qld TAFE, and Music Teacher at The Australian Academy of Music. Residencies include The Booringa Fire & Water Festival 2019 and Naidoc Week 2018 - Ngulalma ngalinda because of her we can, that took place on Gunggari/Mitchel country, 2018. I completed a two week residency at the University of Hawaii where a series of lithographs were completed. I also practice as a musician as a singer-songwriter, releasing second album, Desire Notes on vinyl this year. A project that also involves my visual concepts.
Influences
Margaret Olley, Florence Broadhurst, Grace Cossington Smith, Pierre Bonnard, Arthur Boyd, Brett Whitely, Patti Smith, Yoko Ono, Mike Parr, John Cage, Richard Bell, Fiona Foley, Pipilotti Rist, William Robinson, Jude Roberts (Gunggari Artist led practitioner), Pat Hoffie, CAIA - Contemporary Australian Indigenous Artists of Queensland College of Art, Russell Craig (Lithographer), Nicholas Drake, Sam Sharma, Zoe Porter, Bill Platz, Caitlin Sheedy, Maureen Hansen.
Awards
Winner of the Womankind 2022 Illustration Award, Winner of the People’s Choice Prize at The Goondiwindi Show 2021. Finalist at the Black Swan Prize for Portraiture with my painting of Fiona Foley, the Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing and the Lethbridge prize, 2010. 2007 Winner of the Warwick Art Gallery Prize for drawing.
Exhibitions
Performance Artist Showcase at The End of The Line Festival Collaborative, Pop Gallery 2017; Printmakers group show: 'Body Politic' at Crane Arts in Philadelphia 2014; solo show at Dogget St Gallery, Brisbane in 2012. Artist in Residence at 'Booringa Fire & Water Festival', Mitchell, 2019. 'Nightlife' solo exhibition, 2022, 'Three Characters in 1 Room' - Exhibition at Land Street Gallery, 2021, 'Yimbaya Maranoa Collective' touring Exhibition - Injune Creek Gallery & Maranoa Regional Gallery and solo show, 'Day Dream' 2023, Yimbaya Maranoa , 'Sleeping Stories', Crows Nest Gallery 2024.
Website
Showing the single artwork
