Asiya Clarke

Asiya Clarke grew up on a farm in Zimbabwe. She completed a BA Fine Art at the University of Cape town in 1976.

She spent a year in Jerusalem studying Sufism. After moving to the UK she raised a family and set up a full time practice and running of classes in 1993. She exhibited locally and in London winning the St Albans Open in 2003. Awarded by University of Hertfordshire, this took the form of a solo exhibition at the Margaret Harvey gallery, for which she was awarded an Arts Council grant.

She went on to complete an MA Arts Practice at Goldsmiths College in 2008. Her degree show work was selected for Saatchi 4 New Sensations. She has exhibited locally and abroad; including several solo shows, numerous group shows and taken part repeatedly in Open Studios. She has work in private and public collections.

​Asiya Clarke’s work examines the relationship between the parts and the whole. Starting with images of water, she playfully imagines the beginnings of creation, the emergence of the particular from a great undifferentiated mass finding patterns and structures that are both universal and ephemeral. She investigates how an image grabs our attention, how all symmetry, such as the doubling in a reflection or a Rorschach b...

MA Arts PracticeGoldsmiths, London, GB,
BAFA University of Cape Town, SA

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2015 Open studio - Artists network Bedfordshire
2013 ‘Pareidolia’- Departure Lounge Gallery, Luton
2004 ‘Containment’ - Margaret Harvey Gallery, St Albans
2001 ‘Wide Earth’ - Boxfield Gallery, Stevenage
1999 ‘Dust and Stardust’ - Tring Zoological Museum Gallery

AWARDS
2013 Artists Access to college scheme
2013 Funding from Luton Culture for solo exhibition at Departure Lounge, Luton
2003 Overall winner of St Albans Open Exhibition, awarded by University of Hertfordshire
2003 Grants for the Arts – Arts Council East: funding for solo exhibition.
1998 St Albans Open, (Prize Winner)
1994 The Art Show Alexandra Palace, London (Commendation)
1993 Hertfordshire Open Exhibition (awarded shared exhibition with three other winners)

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2015 Connect’ - Luton Hat Factory
‘Art Masters’ - Truman Brewery, London
‘Material Matters III’ – Art Works group show Apsley, Herts
2014 Artists Access to college – 4 artists – University of Bedfordshire, Luton
‘Material Matters II’ – Art Works group show Apsley, Herts
2013 ‘Material Matters’​ – Art Works group show Apsley, Herts
2011 St Albans Open
2011 Be...