Kristen McClarty
Artist bio and recent exhibiting history
I am a specialist printmaker working from my studio in
Kommetjie. Printmaking has been my primary art focus since 2016, when I spent a
year working in the studio of Alma Vorster in Cape Town. Prior to that, I
concentrated on painting. My art
practice also includes fibre art (natural mark making and stitch work). The
focus of my printmaking is on relief and monotype techniques.
Process and authentically connecting with materials is
integral to my work and plays an important role in my storytelling. When making
art I am acutely aware of the developing provenance of the piece, as I pull
together elements of materiality; the natural lie of the wood, the paper or
textile often handmade, using skills passed from one generation to the next,
the hard and sharp edge of the tools I use to carve away surface, carrying
their own artisanal history. The layering of tone and colour; what is seen and
what is unseen but is nevertheless present in the finished artwork.
My recent woodblocks draw on the idea that lived experience
lingers in a place, recorded on the surfaces of rock, droplets of water and
suspended particles in air and liquid. A residual energy, reluctant to leave,
pooling in the space or mounting up as a palimpsest on the very structure of
the environment.
These themes will be carried into my new body of work that
is currently taking shape and will be exhibited in 2024. I have exhibited in
the UK, as well as widely in South Africa, and my work is held in private and
public collections in South Africa and worldwide.
Main group and solo exhibitions:
2023
White River Gallery – Lingering: Holding Memory – A group
exhibition of ten Cape artists – Exhibited and co-curated with Laurel Holmes –
March – April 2023
Kim Sacks Gallery – Stillness – May – June 2023
Circle Contemporary (Cornwall, UK) – Group exhibition – May
2023
International Print Exchange – Flora + Fauna – organised by
Sally Caston in Australia – June 2023
W17 Gallery – Palimpsest: A retrospective immersion – solo
exhibition co-curated with Claudia Bentel – June – September 2023
Artvark Gallery with The Printing Girls – 25 Years 25 Prints
– Exhibited and co-curated with Theresa Jo Wessels – August – September 2023
Still coming up:
Fynarts Gallery (Hermanus) – Abundance – a group exhibition
of fibre art – October – November 2023
Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair (London) – November 2023
Gallery 2 – Your mind is a garden – November 2022 – January
2023
StateoftheART– Heaven and Earth – small group exhibition –
November 2023
Open Studios Kommetjie 2023 – December 2023
2022
StateoftheART – A sense of place – A small collection
exhibited in Autumn group show – April 2022
Kalk Bay Modern – Art on Paper XII – May – June 2022
Gallery 2 with The Printing Girls – Miniatures in Print –
July 2022
Daor Contemporary – Girls! Girls! Girls! – August 2022
Association for Visual Arts – Between a Rock and a Hard
Place – small group show with Clare Menck, Laurel Holmes, Madeleine van Manen,
Jo Roets, Kristen McClarty – August – September 2022
Latitudes with The Printing Girls – A sense of place –
August – December 2022
StateoftheART – Fabrication: A message folded, moulded and
stitched – group exhibition of ten women artists – I conceptualised, researched,
co-curated and exhibited in this show – September – October 2022
Kim Sacks Gallery – Botanical: The Second Exhibition –
October 2022
The Art Bank of South Africa – Acquisition of original
screen print titled “No promises” – October 2022
Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair (London) – November 2022
Daor Contemporary – Ebb: A group exhibition – November 2022
– January 2023
David Krut Projects with The Printing Girls – Things that
live and move – November – December 2022
Gallery 2 – Fabrication: A message folded, moulded and
stitched – second showing of the group exhibition of ten women artists – I
conceptualised, researched, co-curated and exhibited in this show – November
2022 – January 2023
Open Studios Kommetjie – December 2021
2021
The Association of Arts Pretoria with The Printing Girls –
New Girls on the Block – March 2021
Kalk Bay Modern – Art on Paper XII – May 2021
A group of The Printing Girls at Spin Street Gallery – At
the Table – April – May 2021
The Art Room with The Printing Girls – August 2021
White River Gallery with The Printing Girls – Mother Nature
in Monotype – August – September 2021
White River Gallery – September: A group exhibition –
September 2021
StateoftheART Gallery Award Top 10 Finalist – September 2021
The Print Gallery with The Printing Girls – October –
November 2021
StateoftheART Gallery Award Finalist Exhibition – October
2021
Daor Contemporary – Quiddity: A group exhibition – October
2021 – January 2022
Open Studios Kommetjie – December 2021
2020
The Printing Girls at The Art Room – September 2020
Kim Sacks Gallery – Botanical: An Exhibition – November 2020
– Jan 2021
Open Studios Kommetjie – December 2020
Kalk Bay Modern – Textile & Jewellery Exhibition – December
2020 – Jan 2021`
2019 and prior
Open Studios Kommetjie – December 2019
I had my acrylic paintings exhibited in G2 Art, Red Gallery,
Hout Bay Gallery, Gallery at Grand Provence and The Dorp Street Gallery in
Stellenbosch (at various times between 2010-2015).
I exhibited painting/printmaking and textile/stitched work
Kalk Bay Modern, Artvark Gallery, Hout Bay Gallery and the Cape Gallery over
the period from 2016 to 2020 and continue to be represented by some of these
galleries.
