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Claire Anna Watson creates installations and video works using materials from daily life – often fruit and

vegetables. Each installation reveals the artist’s 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 is experienced as a

curator, writer and arts administrator and is a Master of Fine Art Candidate at Monash University.  She

lives and works in Melbourne, Australia.

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Solo Exhibitions / Public Art

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, 2008

Epiphyte Vanha Sahantie, Haukivuori, Finland, 2008

Transporter Saksala ArtRadius, Haukivuori, Finland, 2008

Pineapples for Piscina Seventh Gallery, Fitzroy, Melbourne, 2007

Self-Titled Trocadero Artspace Billboard, Footscray, Melbourne, 2007- 2008

Jellybean Lab: Order and Caprice Bus Gallery, Melbourne, 2006

Bir Dahaki Sefere, Okyanus! Sile Municipality Gallery, Turkey, 2005

Next Time, the Ocean! Installation on Beach, Sile, Turkey, 2005

Wired- up, (Open Studio) Carlton, Melbourne, 2000

Group Exhibitions

Snow Show First Site Gallery, 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, 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 Talk, Counihan Gallery, 2008

Arts Grant (Public Installation), Sile Municipality, Turkey, 2005

Grants / Achievements (Curator)

Moderator: International Arts Residency Conference (USA), Transcultural Exchange, 2009

Arts Victoria Board Member: Programming Arts Victoria, 2008

Judge:  Arc Drawing Prize, Tyers Art Show, Various, 2008

Guest Speaker: West Space, Craft Victoria, Meeniyan Art Gallery, Gippsland Grammar, Various, 2008-2009

Conference Scholarship (The C – word: Collaboration): NETS, 2008

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

Arts Grant (Street Fair: Gippsland Art Gallery): Regional Arts Fund, 2007

Community Arts Grant (Public Art Publication): RMIT University, 2005

Publications / Media / Reviews (on Claire Anna Watson)

Projecto de Arte Publica “Arvore da Vida – Evora”, Metro News, Portugal, 23^rd April, 2010

Robert Nelson: Breathing heroic and sinister life into the inert lump - The Age, 5^th November, 2008

Jane O’Neill: Claire Anna Watson: Ephemeral Works 2005 - 08, 2008
Catalogue Essay – Counihan Gallery

Jane Barlow: Artnotes – Art Monthly, 2008

Artlink: Exhibitions to watch (Vol 28, No 3, p9), 2008

Porous: RMIT Public Art Catalogue, 2006

Publications: Catalogue Essays/ Reviews (written by Claire Anna Watson)

Sphericity: Melanie Irwin - Catalogue Essay: Blindside, 2010

Viachroma: Rowena Martinich - Catalogue Essay: Dandenong City Council, 2009

Searching for Eden: Geoff La Gerche - Catalogue Essay: Gippsland Art Gallery, 2009

Behrouz Rae – UTO (Utopia Trust Oath) – Catalogue Essay, Gippsland Art Gallery, 2009

A Strange Façade – Catalogue Essay: Gippsland Art Gallery, 2008

Hockey Plot: Negotiations Between Young Contemporary Artists – Catalogue Essay: Next Wave Festival, 2008

From Frederick McCubbin to Charles McCubbin – Catalogue Essay: Gippsland Art Gallery, 2008

Virtue of the Void:  Nadine Lineham – Catalogue Essay: Gippsland Art Gallery, 2008

Truth + Beauty: Peter James Smith – Catalogue Essay: Gippsland Art Gallery, 2008

At Play with Paint: Tim Wright – Curator’s Notes: Maffra Exhibition Space, 2007

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

Education

Master of Fine Art Candidate, Monash University, 2007 – ongoing

Graduate Certificate Public Art, RMIT University, 2005

1st Class Honours Fine Art (Painting), RMIT University, 2000

Bachelor of Fine Art (Painting) with Distinction, RMIT University, 1996 – 1999

Committees

Blindside Gallery, Melbourne, 2010 – ongoing

Cowwarr Arts Network Inc. 2007 – ongoing

Employment (selected)

Art Curator: Banyule City Council, 2010 – ongoing

Coordinator: Visual Arts Program, Asialink, 2009 – 2010

Curator: Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale, 2007 – 2008

Curator  / Arts Project Leader: Burrinja, 2001 – 2005

Arts Project Leader/Community Artist: Knox City Council, 1993 – 2000