Senior Lecturer
e: ccurneen@cardiffmet.ac.uk / claire@clairecurneen.com
w: clairecurneen.com
Teaching Experience / Academic Responsibilities
Claire Curneen has taught on the Ceramics programme at Cardiff School of Art & Design, Cardiff Metropolitan University, since 2001. Teaching across all levels, including L4, L5, and L6.
Since 2016, the majority of her teaching responsibilities have been focused on the L7 Master's Degree, Ceramics and Maker programme. She currently holds a 0.2 post as Senior Lecturer.
Modules include ART7773 (IDEA), ART7774 (OUTPUT), ART7775 (QUESTION).
Internal assessment on each of these modules.
Specialist Subject Areas
Ceramics: studio practice, professional practice, visual studies, craft, sculpture.
Qualifications
- 1991-1992 MA Ceramics, Cardiff Institute of Technology
- 1990-1991 Post Graduate Diploma in Applied Arts, Ulster University
- 1987-1990 Diploma in Design Ceramics
- 1986-1987 Certificate in Foundation Studies
Biography
One of the foremost figurative ceramic artists working today, Claire Curneen creates sculptures that poignantly reflect on humanity. Universal themes of loss, suffering, sacrifice and rebirth underpin her works. Hand-built in white porcelain, sometimes with touches of blue or gold, their translucent and fragile qualities offer metaphors through which we can consider the human condition and experience.
Claire Curneen has an international reputation with an extensive exhibition profile and her work is held in many public collections around the world, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, National Museum Wales, Ulster Museum, National Museum of Scotland Edinburgh, Benaki Museum (Greece), Icheon World Ceramics Centre (Korea), and Crocker Museum (USA).
Claire has received awards from the Arts Council of Wales, a Creative Wales Award in 2005 and the Creative Wales Ambassador Award in 2012. The latter award research project, 'The Museum Object as a point of reference', a collaborate project between the Mission Gallery in Wales and the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, Dublin, Ireland.
Claire is a national advisor for the Arts Council of Wales and also contributes to the National Museum of Wales advisory panel, for the acquisition of art and craft for the national collection.
Principal Publications, Exhibitions and Awards
Solo Exhibitions
- 2022 Through Living Roots Awaken, Anima Mundi Gallery, St.Ives, Cornwall
- 2021 Baroque and Berserk. Walker Art Gallery
- 2015 To This I Put My Name, Kunstforum Solothurn, Switzerland
- 2014 To This I Put My Name, Ruthin Craft Centre, Ruthin, Wales & tour
- 2013 Claire Curneen, La ferme de la Chapelle, Switzerland
- 2011 New Work, Claire Curneen, Beaux Arts, Bath
- 2008 Succour, Ruthin Craft Centre, Ruthin, Wales & tour
- 2007 Secondary Relics, Black Swan Arts, Frome, Somerset
- 2004 Claire Curneen, Ruthin Craft Centre, Ruthin, Wales & tour
- 1997 New Work, Claire Curneen, Ruthin Craft Centre, Ruthin, Wales & tour
Selected Group Exhibitions
- 2023 A deeper Understanding. Responding the Tobias and the Angel by Verrochio. Coincided with the National Gallery Masterpiece Tour, Tobias and the Angel by Verrochio
- 2020 Adrian Sassoon at The London House of Modernity, London
- Beyond the Vessel: Narratives in Contemporary European Ceramics, Messums, Salisbury, Wiltshire
- Striking Gold: Fuller at Fifty. USA
- 2019 Adrian Sassoon, Masterpiece London, The Royal Hospital Chelsea, London
- 2018 Adrian Sassoon, Masterpiece London, The Royal Hospital Chelsea, London
- On a Pedestal; Celebrating the Contemporary Portrait Bust in the 21st Century, Castletown House, Co. Kildare, Ireland
- 2017 Crafts Council, Collect Open, Saatchi Gallery, London
- Ferrin Contemporary, New York Ceramics & Glass Fair, USA
- 2015 Adrian Sassoon, Masterpiece London, The Royal Hospital Chelsea, London
- 2014 Adrian Sassoon, Masterpiece London, The Royal Hospital Chelsea, London
- 2013 New Blue-and-White, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA
- 2012 Never Never, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth
- Reflection, Galerie Kuntsforum Solothurn, Switzerland
- New World: Timeless Vision, IAC exhibition, New Mexico Museum of Art, USA
- When I Woke, Llantarnum Grange Arts Centre, Wales (curator with catalogue)
- 2011 Placement: Ceramic Connections Wales/Scotland, Oriel Davies, Mid Wales
- Lost Certainty - Claire Curneen & Alice Kettle, Contemporary Applied Arts, London
- Adrian Sassoon, Art Antiques London, Kensington Gardens, London
- 3x2, The Shed, Galway, Ireland
- 2010 Pretty young Things, Lacoste Gallery, Boston, USA
- Claire Curneen and Olivia Chargue, Le Don du Fel, France
- Passage, Craft in the Bay, Cardiff, Wales
- Parings, collaboration with textile designer Alison Welsh, MMU Manchester
- Contemporary British Studio Ceramics: The Grainer Collection. Mint Museum, Charlotte, USA
Awards
- 2012 Creative Wales Ambassador Award, 'The Museum Object as a point of Reference'
- 2008 Selected for Tawain Ceramics Biennale, Taipei County Yingge Ceramics Museum
- 2005 Selected for 3rd World Ceramic Biennale 2003, Korea International Competition
- 2004 Selected for 1st European Ceramics Competition, Greece
- 2003 Shortlisted for the Arts Foundation Award for Ceramics, UK
- Selected for World Ceramic Biennale 2003, Korea International Competition
- 2001 Gold Medal in Craft & Design, National Eisteddfod of Wales
Public Collections
- Crafts Council, London
- Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead
- National Museum & Gallery of Wales, Cardiff
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
- Manchester City Art Gallery, Manchester
- National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh
- Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth, Wales
- Cleveland Craft Centre, Middlesbrough
- Oldham Art Gallery and Museum, Manchester
- York City Art Gallery, York
- Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Middlesbrough
- Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, Eire
- Limerick City Gallery of Art, Limerick, Eire
- Ulster Museum, Belfast, Northern Ireland
- Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece
- Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, Arizona, USA
- Clay Studio, Philadelphia, USA
- Kennedy Museum of Art, Athens, Ohio, USA
- Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
- Icheon World Ceramic Centre, Gyeonggi-do, Korea
- Taipei Ceramics Museum, Taiwan
