Biography
Claire Anna Watson is a curator, artist and arts writer. As a curator/arts manager she has worked with Asialink, Gippsland Art Gallery and Next Wave. As an artist she creates installations and video works, the most recent of which explore ephemeral matter as a site of scientific manipulation and experimentation. Her installations propel the everyday object into a state of dreamlike wonder revealing an abiding interest in spatial and socio-cultural analysis and a passion for the absurd. She has devised public art projects for the shores of the Black Sea in Turkey, a forest in Finland, the rural plains of Portugal and the snowfields of Australia. Claire holds a Master of Fine Art from Monash University. She lives and works in Melbourne, Australia.
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************Education
Master of Fine Art (Research) Monash University
Graduate Certificate, Public Art RMIT University
1st Class Honours, Fine Art (Painting) RMIT University
Bachelor of Fine Art (Painting) with Distinction RMIT University
Solo Exhibitions / Public Art
Sortie BLINDSIDE, Melbourne, Australia, 2011
Reverie Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale, Australia, 2011
Tree study #1, #3, #4 Evoramonte, Portugal, 2010
Tree study #2 (Fruit Tree) Jardim Publico, Evora, Portugal, 2010
Ephemeral Works 2005-08 Counihan Gallery, Brunswick, Melbourne, Australia, 2008
Epiphyte Vanha Sahantie, Haukivuori, Finland, 2008
Transporter Saksala ArtRadius, Haukivuori, Finland, 2008
Pineapples for Piscina Seventh Gallery, Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia, 2007
Self-Titled Trocadero Artspace Billboard, Footscray, Melbourne, Australia, 2007- 2008
Jellybean Lab: Order and Caprice Bus Projects, Melbourne, Australia, 2006
Bir Dahaki Sefere, Okyanus! Sile Municipality Gallery, Turkey, 2005
Next Time, the Ocean! Sile, Turkey, 2005
Group Exhibitions
Made to Last: The Conservation of Art Ballarat Art Gallery, Manningham Art Gallery, A Latrobe Regional Gallery and NETS Victoria Touring Exhibition, curated by Sherryn Vardy; also featuring Brook Andrew, Penny Byrne, Juan Ford and Ghostpatrol, 2012-2014
Digital Media Month Projections Colour Box Studio, Footscray, 2013
ART + FOOD: Beyond the Still Life Brenda May Gallery, Sydney, 2012; curated by Megan Fizell, 2012
The 37th Alice Prize 2012 Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, 2012
Urban Creatures Toyota Community Spirit Gallery; curated by Ken Wong, 2012
Re-framed Counihan Gallery, Brunswick, Melbourne; curated by Edwina Bartlem, 2011
Experiments on Plant Hybridization dianne tanzer gallery + projects, Melbourne; curated by Drew Pettifer and Gillian Brown, 2010
Snow Show First Site Gallery, RMIT University, Melbourne, 2007
Weft RMIT Public Art, Hardwick Building, Brunswick, Melbourne, 2005
The Environmental Art Show Collingwood Underground Arts Space, Melbourne, 2005
Invisibility RMIT Honours Graduate Show, Span Gallery, Melbourne, 2000
Visibility RMIT Bachelor of Fine Art (Painting) Graduate Show, RMIT, Melbourne, 1999
Grants / Achievements Artist
Artist Residency OBRAS Foundation, Evoramonte, Portugal, 2010
Community Development Grant Solo Exhibition, Moreland City Council, 2008
Artist Residency Saksala ArtRadius, Haukivuori, Finland, 2008
Postgraduate Travel Grant (Finland) Monash University, 2008
Artist Talks BLINDSIDE — Melbourne, 2011; Gippsland Art Gallery — Sale, 2011; OBRAS — Portugal, 2010; Counihan Gallery, 2008
Arts Grant (Public Installation) Sile Municipality, Turkey, 2005
Grants / Achievements (selected) Curator / Arts Manager
Korea Strategy Meetings Asialink, 2009
Travelling Curator: Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Thailand Abundant Australia — Highlights of the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale, Asialink, 2009
Respondent International Opportunities in the Arts (Boston, USA), TransCultural Exchange, 2009
Arts Victoria Board Member Programming Arts Victoria, 2008
Judge Banyule Award for Works on Paper (2011), Banyule Outdoor Sculpture Award (2011), Fringe Furniture (2010, 2011), Arc Drawing Prize (2008), Various 2008 – 2010
Guest Speaker Department of Culture and the Arts, West Space, Craft Victoria, Meeniyan Art Gallery, Various, 2008-2010
Arts Development Presentation Grant (Touring Exhibition) Arts Victoria, 2007
Regional Emerging Curator’s Grant (Touring Exhibition) Next Wave, 2007
Curatorial Internship (National Gallery of Victoria) Public Galleries Assoc. of Vic, 2007
Publications / Media / Reviews (selected) on Claire Anna Watson
Jane O’Neill. Micro-niche Art Monthly, March 2013, pp.33-35.
Bryony Nainby. Made to Last: The Conservation of Art InSite. Museums Australia Victoria, Nov 2012 – Jan 2013
Marja De Jong (ed). This is our nature (book), AREFS talde ja kulttuurl ry, Finland, 2012
Jessie Scott. Sortie BLINDSIDE, August 2011
Ace Wagstaff. Review: Sortie — Claire Anna Watson RRR Radio, 25 August 2011 & Dead Hare Melbourne Art Review (online), August 2011
Editorial. Edible dreamscapes revealed The Latrobe Valley Express, 14 April 2011
Editorial. Be lost in Reverie Times Spectator, 5 April 2011
Sweta Srivastava Vikram. Not all birds sing (a collaboration with Claire Anna Watson; featuring a foreword by Mary Sherman, Director of TransCultural Exchange, USA) Cyberwit Publishing, 2011
Urszula Dawkins. Ephemeral interactions and cognitive dissonances — Claire Anna Watson’s Reverie Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale; Trouble (online), April, 2011
Drew Pettifer & Gillian Brown. Experiments on plant hybridization Dianne Tanzer Gallery + Projects, 2010
Editorial. Projecto de Arte Publica “Arvore da Vida – Evora” Metro News, Portugal, 23rd April, 2010, p.13
Robert Nelson. Breathing heroic and sinister life into the inert lump The Age, 5th November, 2008, p.18
Jane O’Neill. Claire Anna Watson: Ephemeral Works 2005 – 08 Counihan Gallery, 2008
Jane Barlow. A passion for the absurd Art Monthly, Artnotes, Issue 214, October 2008
Editorial. Exhibitions to watch Artlink, Vol. 28, No 3, 2008, p.9
Porous: Public Art Catalogue RMIT University, 2006
Publications: Catalogue Essays/ Reviews (selected) written by Claire Anna Watson
Separation Anxiety: Hannah Raisin — Catalogue Essay BLINDSIDE, 2011
Dualism: A Paradigm for today? Duality — The 2011 Banyule Award for Works on Paper, Catalogue Essay Banyule City Council, 2011
Unravelled: Artists’ books and typographical prints from the Banyule Art Collection — Catalogue Essay Banyule City Council, 2011
21 NEW: A selection of recent acquisitions — Catalogue Essay Banyule City Council, 2011
An appetite for art: Bus @ Blindside — Review Trouble, 2010
A complex archaeology: Jan Berg — Essay Counihan Gallery, 2010
Sphericity: Melanie Irwin — Catalogue Essay BLINDSIDE, 2010
Every 23 Days: 20 Years Touring Asia (with Alison Carroll and Sarah Bond) Asialink, 2010
Viachroma: Rowena Martinich — Catalogue Essay Dandenong City Council, 2009
Searching for Eden: Geoff La Gerche — Catalogue Essay Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale, 2009
Behrouz Rae – UTO (Utopia Trust Oath) — Catalogue Essay Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale, 2009
A Strange Façade — Catalogue Essay Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale, 2008
Hockey Plot: Negotiations Between Young Contemporary Artists from Gippsland and Melbourne — Catalogue Essay Next Wave Festival, Trouble Magazine, 2008
From Frederick McCubbin to Charles McCubbin — Catalogue Essay Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale, 2008
Truth + Beauty: Peter James Smith — Catalogue Essay Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale, 2008
Flooded In: Local artists respond to the recent Gippsland Floods — Curator’s Notes Maffra Exhibition Space, 2007
Snow Show — Catalogue Essay First Site Gallery – RMIT University, 2007
Fluoresce — Catalogue Essay Area Contemporary Art Space, 2006
Istanbul Biennial — Review: Avatar (Public Art Zine) RMIT University, 2006
Weft — Catalogue Essay RMIT University, 2005
Investigating Space, Full Haus, Cover Article RMIT Arts Union Quarterly Magazine, 2005
Collections
Counihan Gallery (Moreland City Council)
Private Collections
Committees / Associations
BLINDSIDE Melbourne, 2010 — ongoing (Chair 2012-)
Cowwarr Arts Network Inc. Cowwarr, 2007 — ongoing
National Association for the Visual Arts, Australia Professional member – ongoing
Professional (selected)
Art Curator Banyule City Council, 2010 — ongoing
Coordinator Visual Arts Program, Asialink — The University of Melbourne, 2009 – 2010
Curator Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale, 2007 – 2009
Curator / Arts Project Leader Burrinja, 2001 – 2005
Arts Project Leader / Community Artist Knox City Council, 1993 – 2000