Claire Milner
York, United Kingdom
About Claire Milner
STATEMENT: “Art doesn’t exist in a vacuum, artists throughout history have chronicled the important issues of their time. The subjects I pursue are extremely personal to my identity and value systems as an environmentalist, yet they are also universal and reaching a critical tipping point for every individual regardless of ethnicity, gender, class or religion. Climate change, ocean pollution, environmental degradation, habitat loss and the current rapid rate of extinction are all issues that could have devastating implications and they represent some of the biggest challenges we face. Without urgent action on these momentous issues, we may not have the luxury to concern ourselves with others.”
BIOGRAPHY: Claire Milner’s visual vocabulary draws widely from many areas including classical literature, art history, fashion, science and the natural world. Working in collections with art historical references, her paintings explore the role of the artist as a witness to her own time in history. Her experience in the advertising and design industry and study of Roman and Byzantine mosaics brings an added dimension towards informing her evolving collections, creating allegories of our time in a symbiosis of ancient and contemporary techniques. Prevalent themes focus on topical issues such as socio-political power disparities, migration, identity and the position of female artists in the canon of art history. Her special focus relates to the environment, our place within it and encroachment upon it. Juxtaposing abundance and loss, her paintings compare a world driven by commercial values with that of environmental ideals as determinants of worth. The effects of humanity are implicit within her paintings, even when the human figure is absent or takes a secondary precedence.
The process involves traditional painting techniques combined with crystal mosaics involving rigorous methodologies rooted in the historical skills of an ancient art form, referencing portraiture and animals in mosaics dating back to the Greek, Roman and Byzantine eras, yet vibrantly contemporary in a medium synonymous with high fashion and sustainable luxury.
Claire Milner's artworks are held in private collections around the world. She has created art for conservation organisations, celebrities and large corporations and her work regularly appears in publications worldwide. Her large-scale Swarovski crystal mosaic portrait of Marilyn is in the private collection of Rihanna, and was included in Rihanna’s profile of favourite things in a recent issue of Vogue Paris. Her portrait of Amy Winehouse appeared in an exhibition curated by the Amy Winehouse Foundation to mark what would have been the late singer's 30th birthday. Her work has been displayed in museum exhibitions in the UK including: Ripon Cathedral, York Minster, Corinium Museum, Canal Museum, Pontefract Museum, Museum in the Park, as well as installations in Harrods and Whiteley's. Her paintings have been featured internationally in the media including The BBC, BLOUIN ARTINFO, Channel News Asia, Elle, Forbes, Huffington Post Arts, Save Virunga, The Telegraph, The Times, Vogue Paris and many others and described as "metaphors of our time" in examining the effects of humans on each other and on other species.
Passionate about the environment and the threats facing endangered species, Claire’s work has raised thousands of pounds for conservation. In 2015 'Burning Bright' from the collection entitled 'True Value' was exhibited at Hotel Café Royal, auctioned at The Savoy Hotel, London, and sold to an art collector in Germany in aid of Save Wild Tigers, The Born Free Foundation and The Environmental Investigation Agency. In 2016 Claire's crystal mosaic portrait of an elephant-poaching victim was sold to a collector in New York in aid of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi. In November 2017 Claire's painting entitled 'The Unknown' commissioned by actress and animal activist Virginia McKenna was auctioned in aid of the Born Free Foundation and sold to actress and activist Joanna Lumley.
Education:
EDUCATION & TRAINING
BA Hons Graphic Design, Coventry
Foundation In Art & Design, Harrogate
Elaine M. Goodwin Mosaic Summer School, London
Mosaic Workshop Course, London
Events:
2018 1ST ARTSLANT Prize Showcase Winner
Artivism Challenge winner exhibited during Art Basel Miami
Beyond the Bars, Royal Horticultural Halls, London. Benefit auction for the Born Free Foundation.
Featured in Vogue Paris guest edited by Rihanna who says of the portrait Claire created for her: '“This portrait by the artist CLAIRE MILNER is at home in New York. She makes portraits of celebrities a bit like Warhol, but in her case, the Swarovski crystals replace the serigraphic technique. I find fascinating the shadows, the nuances, and the emotions that she manages to express thanks to subtle games of colored crystals. I am in love with this work. And I am in love with Marilyn. What is more moving than these candid eyes?”
Exhibitions:
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS & ART FAIRS
2017 Artivism Challenge Miami Art Week
2017 Beyond the Bars, Royal Horticultural Halls, London
2015 Save Wild Tigers, The Savoy Hotel, London
2015 Be Inspired, curated by Christian Furr, Hotel Cafe Royal, London
2015 Selected to participate in the X Edition of the Florence Biennale
2014 "Fragments of Nature" RHS Harlow Carr
2014 "To Be or Not To Be" Endangered Species, London (Rebecca Hossack Gallery)
2014 AAF, Hong Kong (Rebecca Hossack Gallery)
2014 AAF, Singapore (Rebecca Hossack Gallery)
2014 Bils and Rye, North Yorks
2013 Proud Gallery, London, Amy Winehouse Exhibition "For You I Was A Flame"
2013 Saltbox Gallery, Helmsley, North Yorkshire
2012 Great North Art Show, Ripon Cathedral, North Yorkshire
2012 Saltbox Gallery, Helmsley, North Yorkshire
2009 Banksy: Due North, John Mackie Gallery, Harrogate, North Yorkshire
2009 London Fashion Week, Platform, Hatton Garden, London
2009 Music of the Eye, Corinium Museum, Cirencester
2008 Waterways Exhibition, Canal Museum, London
2008 Planet Earth Exhibition, in conjunction with UNESCO & IUGS, Opus Mosaic Gallery, Exeter
2007 Facades, Wakefield Art Gallery, West Yorkshire
2006 Symbols of Faith, York Minster, York
2005 Wilderness, The Makers Guild of Wales, Cardiff
2005 The Elements, Museum in the Park, Stroud
2003 Affordable Art Fair, London
2002 Memories of Italy, Artistic License, London
2002 Panorama of a New Generation, Bernard Chauchet, London
2000 Take One Woman, The Atrium Gallery, Whiteley's, London
1999 Paintings in Hospitals, The Sheridan Russell Gallery, London
1998 The Imaginative Traveller, London
1997 Harrods, Knightsbridge, London
1996 The Regency Gallery, Cambridge
1996 The Devizes Summer Festival
1995 Cambridge Open Studios
1995 Looking Forward, CCA Galleries, Cambridge
1994 The Lawson Gallery, Cambridge
