Clare Thackway, an Australian artist who lives and works in Paris.

Known for her forthright and intimate portraits and figurative paintings, the body in Clare Thackway’s paintings becomes a semaphore through which she contemplates moments of human experience, from the emotional to the societal.

Informed by ideas in psychology, feminism and the history of painting, she considers how internal and collective experiences affect the ways in which we hold ourselves. The artist works with the fluid associations of cloth and pattern, illuminating the inner threads of our implicit memories and the deep and intricate connectivity between people.

Her decisive and scratched back painted marks drag light off the surface of the body, exposing luminous translucent skin. This prudent use of paint gives pulsing life to flesh, revealing the layers that exist subtly underneath. 

Clare holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Painting) from the Australian National University, with an exchange to Glasgow School of Art, and graduated from the National Art School Sydney with Honours in Fine Art.

Clare has been a finalist in several Australian art awards including the Archibald Prize, the Sir John Sulman Prize, the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, the Helen Lempriere Travelling Scholarship, the Blake Art Prize, the Portia Geach Memorial Award (Highly Commended 2017) and was the winner of the Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship (2009).

Since 2007, she has exhibited regularly in commercial and museum exhibitions and her work is held in private collections in Australia, the UK, Germany, and France.