Born: 1968

Education: Magdalen College Oxford (1987-1990); Wimbledon School of Art (1987-89); and Dun Laoghaire Institue of Art, Design and Technology (1999-2000).

Solo Exhibitions
[Forthcoming] The Molesworth Gallery, February 2009
Purdy Hicks Gallery, London, 22 November-21 December 2007: New Work
Pictures, Ashford Gallery, Royal Hibernian Academy (Dublin, March 2005)
Oisin Gallery, Dublin – One-person exhibition: Touch Me, September 2001

Group Exhibitions
Purdy Hicks Gallery, London, Summer Show, 6 July - 1 September 2007
Molesworth Gallery, Dublin, Winter Show, December 2006 - January 2007
Purdy Hicks Gallery, London, Summer Show, 13 July - 2 September 2006
‘Other Visions: Representation in Contemporary Irish Painting and Photography’, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London, 12 May - 3 June 2006

‘A Moment in Time’, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin, 3rd December 2005 - 7th January 2006
Ashford Gallery Emerging Artists Exhibition, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, December 2005
Molesworth Gallery, Dublin, Winter Show, December 2005 - January 2006
Jerwood Drawing Prize Exhibition of Shortlisted Artists, Jerwood Space, London (travelling exhibition), September 2005
RHA Annual Exhibition (Invited Artist), May 2005
RHA Annual Exhibition, May 2004
Molesworth Gallery Winter Show, December 2003
Iontas Small Works Exhibition (Sligo, Portadown, Limerick), August 2003
RHA Annual Exhibition – Shortlisted, Hennessy Craig Research Scholarship, May 2003
Molesworth Gallery Winter Show, December 2002
May 2002 RHA Annual Exhibition – Invited Artist – Prizewinner: Fergus O’Ryan Memorial Award
Belltable Arts Centre, Limerick: ‘Mirror’ group exhibition of paintings (curated by Michael Canning), July 2001
March 2001, Dublin – National Council for Educational Awards Exhibition of Recent Acquisitions, Mountjoy Square

Selected publications:
Exhibition catalogue, Purdy Hicks Gallery, introduction by Aidan Dunne
Buyers’ Guide to Irish Art, November 2005
Jerwood Drawing Prize Exhibition Catalogue, September 2005
Ashford Gallery Emerging Artists Catalogue, September 2005

Claire Kerr's paintings use familiar places or situations as a context for possible narratives to unfold. They present non-hierarchical, panoramic, snapshot-like narratives of time passing and events taking place. They also explore the way in which different forms of representation affect meaning and interpretation. Although all the paintings are made using oil on canvas, they are often trompe l'oeil representations of other media - both traditional (watercolour, pen and ink, pencil) and more recent (photography, digital images). By using (or appearing to use) a variety of genres, both in terms of content and of technique, they hope to avoid easy classification into current art-critical categories. The paintings are on a small scale and use a precise technique to invite close observation on the part of the viewer, and to encourage a sense of pleasure in 'looking'. Images cannot be entirely explained or given direct equivalents in words. The importance of the sensory, even sensual dimension of the viewer's response does not mean, however, that the paint surface becomes in itself the content or takes over from the possible narratives present in the work. The paint is intended to act as a filter for the content, not to take precedence over it.