Cathleen Clarke’s paintings are shaped by a preoccupation with the fragmented nature of memory, in particular how certain fleeting moments can imprint themselves vividly in the mind, whilst others recede into obscurity. Her intuitive and spontaneous approach echoes this process, with forms concurrently emerging from and retreating into the pictorial plane with equal intensity. Her ethereal subjects appear faintly remembered, held together by the slippery materiality of the oil paint.
Cathleen Clarke (b.1988, Chicago, IL) received a BFA from the Academy of Art University, San Fransisco, US. Solo exhibitions include: A New Path, Workplace, London, UK (2025) (upcoming); Morning Star, Night Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, US (2025); The Night Grows Long, Margot Samel, New York, NY, US (2024); Focus: Cathleen Clarke, Workplace, London, UK (2023); Hungry Soul, Nathalie Karg Gallery, New York, US (2022); Whatever Hour You Woke There Was a Door Shutting, Fou Gallery, Brooklyn, US (2021). Selected group exhibitions include: Beyond Ecstasy, Stems Gallery, Paris, France (2024); As She Is, curated by Rejina Pyo, Soho Revue Gallery, London, UK (2024); Thank you, I’m rested now. I’ll have the lobster today, thank you, Pangée, Montreal, Canada & Margot Samel, New York, US (2024); White Columns Annual Benefit & Exhibition, White Columns, New York, US (2024); Dreamscape, Ames Yavuz Gallery, Sydney, Australia (2024); Night at Dunes, Dunes Gallery in collaboration with Night Gallery, Portland, US (2024); The Blue Hour, Workplace, London, UK (2023); Maskenfreiheit, Margot Samel, New York, US (2023); BREATHLESS!, Myriam Chair Gallery, Paris, France (2023); Evening Shadow, Make Room, Los Angeles, US (2023); Holiday Capsule, Platform Art (2022); Vanitas, Nathalie Karg Gallery, New York, US (2021); tHP: Beacon, Satellite Art Club, Brooklyn, US (2022); Flat Files Program, Collar Works, Troy, US (2022); Speculative Interiors, NARS Foundation, New York, US (2020); Giddy & Dreadful, SK Art, New York, US (2019); and The Body Responds By Lying Down, NARS Foundation, Brooklyn, US (2019).
