Artist Claire Halpin
Dublin born Claire Halpin graduated from the Dublin Institute of technology with an advanced diploma in Fine Art in 1996, following this she elected to continue her studies at the Gray’s School of Art, Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Scotland. Since completing her extensive education Claire’s work has been chosen for exhibition throughout Ireland, her innovative exploration of memory and nostalgia through the re-appropriation of old photographs has drawn the attention of some of the countries most eminent galleries such as the Crawford Gallery, Cork; Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin and the Galway Arts Centre. In addition Claire has acquired a number of arts prizes and residencies over the past decade including the Arts Council Flight Award and the Adjudicators Award, Claremorris Open Exhibition. Claire is a longstanding member of the IMMA Artists Panel as well as being the artist in residence at Temple Street Children’s Hospital since 2005. Most recently she was awarded the K and M Evans Painting Prize at the 178th RHA Annual Exhibition.
Loss through memory and collective memory is the focus of Claire’s paintings. The re-appropriation of family photographs, family memories, submerging them in layers of paint and colour reconstructs the original image thereby challenging the viewers perception of memory and the role of photographs to trigger and distort our recollection of events in time. Of her technique with photographs Claire says “the image differs from the original photograph and links to the concept of constructed memory, how we remember things past and try to capture experience, degrees of separation from the original experience.The process of creating the paintings, the blurring between painting and photography, the very physicality of how the medium is laid down is important to the overall understanding of the work.” Accessibilty to her work is important to Claire. She uses familiar, relatable images to allow the viewer a ‘way in’, a starting point through which they can understand the piece.
Claire’s work can be found in a number of private and public collections including AIB Art Collection, Office of Public Works, The Four Seasons Hotel, Clarion hotels, Dundalk County Council and Blackrock Hospice Foundation.
