Claire McArdle is a Melbourne-based artist whose practice explores jewellery and objects and the experiences imbued by them.
Her works create contexts for conceptual works to influence their perception and are realised through a broad range of materials including metal, textiles, stone, and wood. Claire has held over ten solo exhibitions including, three overseas in Estonia, Germany, and Thailand. In 2017 her exhibition Up North travelled to Gray Street Workshop, Adelaide, The Lost One's Gallery, Ballarat, and Gallerysmith Project Space in Melbourne. Her work has been exhibited in Thailand, Hong Kong, USA, UK, Germany, France, Estonia, Austria, and The Netherlands. She has undertaken residencies in Australia, Mexico, Iceland, and Estonia.
She won the Itami Award at the 2019 ITAMI International Jewellery Exhibition, The Museum of Arts and Crafts, Itami, Japan, first prize at both Contemporary Wearables '13 in 2013 and the National Contemporary Jewellery Award in 2016, and received the Excellence Award at the Victorian Craft Awards in 2017. In 2018 her work was collected by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. She is currently undertaking a Ph.D. at RMIT University, Melbourne. "My practice is led by the concept but grounded in materiality and processes. The materials that will make up the piece are carefully selected in line with the ideas behind the work and the appropriate skills to realise the piece are researched and exercised where needed to bring it into being.
See Claire's work within "Unearthed" at Craft Victoria 1st - 31st October 2022.
"All my work is rooted in identity. Some are blatant, like my questioning of what it means to be Australian in the Identity Fair. Some are more subtle, some are questioning my own identity and some are asking others to question theirs. Adornment is the perfect vehicle for questioning identity as it has such a powerful aspect of personal ownership through its wearability."
/ Claire McArdle