Claire Burbridge

Fragment I The Listener: detail Kneeling Figure

Absence Presence The Listener Bronze 8

Fragment IV Fragment IV: side detail Halocline

Claire Burbridge explores the ways in which the human body can disintegrate and lose its perceivable form. Meticulous observation is combined with a delicate sensitivity to the particularities of human life. Her interest in the figurative is expressed in a range of mediums - from etchings to highly inventive resin sculptures, which use the properties of light and pigment not commonly associated with sculpture. Trained as a printmaker, Burbridge employs the techniques of etching and mono-print as a means to continuously develop her understanding of the human form, through detailed studies of life models. She often manipulates these long-established methods by introducing adaptations to the printing process to fragment the final composition. The deconstruction and isolation of selected sections of the visible world forms a theme throughout her work, an ongoing motif particularly visible in her sculptures. Meditative and still in their tone, the bronze and wax figurative sculptures represent people trapped in the eternal conditions of their own world. Translucent colour and light add an unusual dimension to her resin sculptures which, unlike the wax and bronze works, represent the figure in negative space, the absent figure enclosed in a clear cast resin block partially tinted with pigment.

Claire is one of twins born in London in December 1971. She grew up on the west coast of Scotland and in rural Somerset where she attended Wells Cathedral School. On leaving she studied for a BA in Fine Art and history of Art at Magdalen College, Oxford before returning to her birthplace to study printmaking at Camberwell College of Art where she gained a Masters Degree.

From her earliest recollections there was never a time when Claire considered being anything other than an artist. House bound at the age of three with chicken pox Claire emerged as an artist when she drew a self-portrait complete with intricate eyelashes and facial lines - observation far beyond her years.

To describe Claire's style of work is as difficult as trying to define the ocean. Her art has a spontaneity that comes straight from the heart and yet is equally concerned with the minutiae of intricate detail. Claire has an unmistakable style and visual language that is completely her own.

Claire was awarded the National Sculpture Prize in 2008 and a residency at the Ucross Foundation, Wyoming, U.S.A. in 2010.