UCSD Open Studios: Clare Parry

Clare Parry

Netherspaces. �2007. �127" X 135" X 54". �Egyptian Cotton and Sateen King & Queen Bedsheets, 600 ct., varied dyes, paints, and odor of fabric softener.

I am interested in my personal interactions and meditations with different types of spaces. My work explores the notion of my alienation and isolation within the spaces I intimately occupy and collide with. The personalized experience of a particular space has long been a focal point within the spectrum of my work; I have always been fascinated by the mechanics of the psychological workings of space within my world. Even in my earliest work, the presence of the elements of withdrawal, retreat, and ultimately, isolation were dominant in my exploration into particular facets of contemporary space/landscape.

My current work has become increasingly concerned with modes of evocation, both those that belong to the realm of painting and those that belong to the other sensorial elements that cannot be developed through painting. I have recently been interested in challenging some of the traditional conventions of painting, taking a cue from my predecessors. Playing with my supports (or non-supports) and surface, I am not interested in "violating" the canvas; rather, I am interested in how the experience of a painting (and the space inside the painting) can become more ephemeral and visceral through these choices.

Clare Parry was born right outside of New York City in a small suburb in New Jersey. She received her BFA at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2004 for both her artistic endeavors in the studio and her additional focus on art history, critical theory, and 'contemporary' American history. After her graduation from Carnegie Mellon, Clare remained actively involved in Pittsburgh's art scene working as a curator on several small shows at a variety of informal venues, assisting several artists in the 2004 Carnegie International (particularly helping fabricate the hexagonal theatre for Ugo Rondinone), visiting undergraduate advanced painting classes at CMU as a guest critic, participating in Harp + Silver video performances "Untitled Landscapes" (2004), holding her first solo show, "A Widening Gyre" (2004) and working on several large commissions. Despite returning to the New York metro area in the summer of 2005, she has remained closely associated with Pittsburgh and shows at La Vie Gallery. Clare has attended the Virginia Center for Creative Arts as a VCCA and dodge fellow in the spring of 2006, a residency which was supported by the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. She has also attended the Harold Arts and Music Residency (2007). Clare relocated in 2006 and currently resides in La Jolla, California where she is pursuing her MFA at the University of California, San Diego. In addition to working too hard as an indentured servant to UCSD (a.k.a. TA), she also assists Amy Adler.

Clare Parry

Artists