Cathleen Clarke
Cathleen Clarke, All the People From Your Past, 2021. Oil and acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36 inches. ©Cathleen Clarke, courtesy of Fou Gallery
Mysterious and nostalgic, Clarke’s paintings always easily evoke the deepest stirring from one’s most treasured past.
Clarke gained her Bachelor of Fine Art in Painting and Drawing at the Academy of Art University, San Francisco in 2014. She now works and lives in Brooklyn, New York. Clarke had her first solo show If You Ever Make it Home in San Francisco in 2014. From 2011 to present, her works have been widely exhibited in San Francisco, Chicago and New York. She was selected to attend the NARS Foundation International Artist Residency in 2019, and took part in the virtual exhibition Speculative Interiors by NARS Foundation in 2020. The exhibition Cathleen Clarke: Whatever Hour You Woke There Was a Door Shutting at Fou Gallery is her first solo show in New York.
Clarke seeks for inspiration from old photos and used objects. She is interested in fading memories and hidden stories behind faces and scenes. Influenced by the literature of the stream of consciousness, she depicts sentimental moments with non-linear narration, and thus creates plenty of flexibility to arouse the viewer’s multitudinous thoughts and to resonate with the concurrence of their sensations. Faces with ambiguous expressions, empty rooms with used and worn-out items, and aimless moments in a lively occasion with many participants, are usually representative images in her paintings. Mysterious and nostalgic, Clarke’s paintings always easily evoke the deepest stirring from one’s most treasured past.
Exhibitions
Cathleen Clarke: Whatever Hour You Woke There Was a Door Shutting
September 25–November 28, 2021
Fou Gallery, New York
Press
Art & Life with Cathleen Clarke
December 6, 2018
Voyage Chicago