Claire Price

The paintings of artist Claire Price are infused with memories of New Zealand where she was born and raised. Her bold acrylic paintings—which range from images of the fabulous to glimpses of the disappearing natural world—are charged with mystery and activated by intense, artificially charged colors. Price co-mingles affection and pathos for her subjects as she explores the terrain of memories and photographs, transposing culture and nature into her distinctive personal idiom. Interested in the expressive possibilities of “technical narrative,” which suggests that the traces of an artist’s efforts are in themselves a kind of subject matter, Price’s layered canvases transmit the many decisions she makes while painting. Swaths of intense hues, skeins of drips and delicate impasto textures make in-person inspection of her surfaces a sensually-charged experience. Price is a multi-talented creator who has previously worked as a freelance photographer and a singer/songwriter. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, but has lived and exhibited in New Zealand and Paris. Price’s photographs have appeared on album covers, and in publications including Elle and Wallpaper. During her musical career she created and released two EPs and was a member of the band Frank, which was signed by Universal Publishing. In a recent interview published by Art in Res, Price described her work this way: “I am also drawn to imagery I find campy, fabulous, daring, and sometimes a bit spooky. I love using bold color and I try to create work that brings joy and has an element of intrigue.”