‘A fresh chapter’: Shropshire artist swaps portraits for striking abstract works
After almost 15 years of putting people at the centre of her work, artist Clae is turning to shape, colour and composition for her latest exhibition in Shrewsbury.
An artist who has spent almost 15 years putting the human face at the centre of her work is taking a bold new direction with her latest exhibition in Shrewsbury.
Clae, formerly known as Clae Eastgate, is moving away from portraiture and recognisable subjects for Connection, a new exhibition of abstract work opening at Swan Hill Studios this month.
The exhibition will open the Shrewsbury studio's autumn creative programme and brings together a new collection of paintings exploring shape, colour and composition.
Geometric and gestural forms overlap and fragment across the works, creating contrasts between rhythm and stillness, balance and tension.
For Clae, the change has developed gradually rather than through a conscious decision to leave portraiture behind.
“I am pulled increasingly to the relationships between shapes; from gesture to geometry, fragmentation to balance, surfacing tension and articulating a new visual language,” she said.
Born in Nottinghamshire in 1968, Clae studied at Birmingham School of Art before moving to London in the early 1990s.
An early interest in sculpture developed into life drawing and painting, helping to establish the visual language that would later shape her portrait work.
Since 2012, her portraiture has developed from private commissions into research-led projects undertaken with artists and cultural institutions.
Many of those projects have focused on women who have made significant contributions to the arts and culture, with her portraits documenting their role in cultural and social history.
Several of Clae's portraits are now held in permanent British public collections.
Her latest work offers a very different experience, with Connection deliberately leaving space for viewers to interpret the paintings for themselves.
A shape might suggest a place, a colour could trigger a memory, or a particular arrangement of forms might create a feeling that is difficult to put into words.
Clae said the title Connection reflects both the relationships between the different elements within her paintings and the relationship between an artwork and the person looking at it.
Sam Pooley-Stride, of Swan Hill Studios, said: “Clae's move from portraiture into abstraction is incredibly compelling.
“There is a confidence and generosity to these works: they ask us to slow down, stay with what we see and bring something of ourselves to the experience.
“Connection feels like a beautiful way to begin our autumn programme at Swan Hill Studios.”
The exhibition's private view takes place from 5.30pm to 8pm on Thursday, September 24, with the exhibition then open to the public from 10am to 3pm from Friday, September 25, until Thursday, October 1.
Connection will be held at Swan Hill Studios, 17A Swan Hill, Shrewsbury, SY1 1NL.