Claire Morgan’s fragile hanging installations reflect her interest in natural processes and organic materials. In her works, the young artist (b. 1980 in Belfast, Northern Ireland) engages with the elemental conditions of humans within their habitat and reveals the impossibility of grasping the complexity of life and death: “Exploring the physicality of animals, death, and illusions of permanence in the work is my way of trying to come to terms with these things myself.” Elegance and beauty, but also senselessness and horror, are present in her installations and drawings. Simultaneously poetic and vexing, they express the ambivalence of life. In her latest body of work, she also explores these themes, working figuratively for the first time. Female figures and animals in dialogue with each other successively reveal the relationships both to each other and to ourselves and our environment and bear witness to the constant fear of the unknown and loss of control.
Claire Morgan has had solo exhibitions in Belfast, London and Paris and has taken part in numerous international group exhibitions, including in 2009 at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and in 2010 at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. In 2021, the retrospective "Joy in the Pain" opened at the Saarlandmuseum, Moderne Galerie, Saarbrücken. In 2004 she received the Annual Bursary Award from the British Society of Sculptors and the Royal British Society’s Roy Noakes Award, and in 2006 she was awarded the Premio Fondazione Amaldo Pomodoro by the Fondazione Pomodoro in Milan. In 2007 she won the Wooda Arts Award from Cornwall UK and in 2019 the Prix de Dessin 2019 of the Fondation Daniel et Florence Guerlain in France. In 2022 she was a recipient of the Virginia A. Groot Foundation Grant. Claire Morgan lives and works in Newcastle, England.
Claire Morgan in her studio in April 2020
© Claire Morgan and Galerie Karsten Greve
Exhibitions
Publications
Exhibitions
Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast, UK
Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, Germany
Learn moreGalerie Karsten Greve, Paris, France
Learn moreGalerie Karsten Greve, Paris, France
Learn moreSaarlandmuseum, Moderne Galerie, Saarbrücken, Germany
Horniman Museum, London, UK
La Maison Deyrolle, Paris, France
Emsdettener Kunstverein, Emsdetten, Germany
Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, Germany
Galerie Karsten Greve AG, St. Moritz, Switzerland
Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris, France
Foundation Francès, Senlis, France
FRIST Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Het Noordbrabants Museum, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
Galerie Angela Berney Fine Arts, Basel, Switzerland, in collaboration with Galerie Karsten Greve AG, St. Moritz, Switzerland, and Galerie Meyer, Paris, France
Musée Jean-Lurçat, Angers, France
Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris, France
Kunst-Station St. Peter, Cologne, Germany (in-situ-installation)
Osthaus Museum, Hagen, Germany; travelled to: Kunstsammlung Jena, Germany; Fondation Fernet Branca, Saint-Louis, France
Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, Germany
Musée Joseph-Denais, Beaufort-en-Vallée, France
Nässjö Konsthall, Sweden
Växjö Konsthall, Sweden
MAC - The Metropolitan Arts Centre, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris, France
Helmshore Mills Textile Museum, Lancashire, UK
Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, Germany
National Centre for Craft and Design, Sleaford, UK
Kunstverein Münsterland, Coesfeld, Germany
Centre for Recent Drawing, London, UK
Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris, France
James Hockey and Foyer Galleries, UCA – University for the Creative Arts, Surrey, UK
Great Run Cultural Programm, The Laing Gallery, Newcastle, UK
Selfridges, London, UK
ROLLO Contemporary Art (Gallery), London, UK
The East Rooms, London, UK
The Hospital Club, London, UK
Wooda Farm, Cornwall, UK
Persistence Work Studios – Yorkshire Artspace, Sheffield, UK
OMAC - Old Museum Arts Centre, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Grosvenor Chapel, Mayfair, London, UK
Lagan Lookout Visitors Centre, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Kunstmuseum Lentos, Linz, Austria
Galerie Karsten Greve AG, St. Moritz, Switzerland
Museum Ostwall im Dortmunder U, Dortmund, Germany
Maison des Arts, Antony, France
Museum Schloss Moyland, Bedburg-Hau, Germany
Fondation Villa Datris, L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, France
Nice, France
Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris, France
Fondation Villa Datris, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, France
Museum Sinclair-Haus, Bad Homburg, Germany
Château de Monbazillac, Monbazillac, France
MoCA Busan, Busan, South Korea
Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris, France
Boghossian Foundation, Villa Empain, Brussels, Belgium
Biggs Museum of American Art, Dover, DE, USA
Galerie Karsten Greve AG, St Moritz, Switzerland
Maison Guerlain, Paris, France
Centre d’art contemporain de Meymac, France
Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris, France
Artloft Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
Galerie Robespierre, Grande-Synthe, France
Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris, France
Villa Bernasconi, Lancy, Switzerland
Galerie Karsten Greve AG, St. Moritz, Switzerland
Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, Germany
National Biennale of Contemporary Sculpture, Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada
The National Centre for Craft & Design, Lincolnshire, UK
Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, Germany
Galerie Karsten Greve AG, St. Moritz, Switzerland
Museum Schloss Homburg, Nümbrecht, Germany
Galerie Karsten Greve AG, St. Moritz, Switzerland
Verket Museum, Avesta, Sweden
Venus Energie AG, OÖ Kulturquartier, Linz, Switzerland
Galerie Karsten Greve AG, St. Moritz, Switzerland
ERES Stiftung, Munich, Germany
Fondazione Ghisla, Locarno, Switzerland
Fellbrigg Hall, Norwich, Norfolk, UK
Galerie Karsten Greve AG, St. Moritz, Switzerland
Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, Germany
Galerie Karsten Greve AG, St. Moritz, Switzerland
Château de Rue, Fribourg, Switzerland
Hall Place, Bourne Road, Bexley, Kent, UK
Tripostal, Lille, France
MONA – Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill, London, UK
Museum Sinclair-Haus, Bad Homburg, Germany
Musée des Années 30, Boulogne-Billancourt, France
The Last Tuesday Society, London, UK
Villa Olmo, Como, Italy
Osthaus Museum, Hagen, Germany
Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris, France
Rivera and Rivera Gallery, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA, USA
La Conciergerie, Paris, France
Château d'Oiron, Oiron, France
MONA – Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Towner Gallery, Eastbourne, UK
EX3 Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea, Florence, Italy
Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Museum of Arts and Design, New York, USA
La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain
SW1 Gallery, London, UK
21 Hoxton Square, London, UK
Fondation Francès, Senlis, France
Espace d’Art Contemporain La Tôlerie, Clermont Ferrand, France
Town Hall Hotel, London, UK
Portobello Wall, London, UK
Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
Ormeau Bath Gallery, Belfast, Northern Ireland
ROLLO Contemporary Art, London, UK
Gallery North, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
The Big Chill Festival 2009, Herefordshire, UK
Assembly Square, Cardiff Bay, UK
Royal British Society of Sculptors, London, UK
Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris, France
Ierimonti Gallery, Milan, Italy
Sheffield Millennium Galleries, Sheffield, UK
HLC, Telford, UK
Jerwood Space, London, UK
Glasgow’s International Festival of Light, Glasgow, Scotland
Pia Getty, London, UK
Church of San Francesco, Arte & Arte, Como, Italy
The Gallery @ Adventure Ecology, London, UK
Cardiff University Optometry Department, Cardiff, Wales, UK
The Guardian Gallery in association with Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery, Shropshire, UK
National Trust, Northumberland, UK
Prize for Young Sculptors, Fondazione Pomodoro, Milan, Italy
Temporary Address, Blyth, Northumberland, UK
Bristol Broadmeads, UK
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich, UK
Hardcastle Crags, Yorkshire, UK
Bolwick Hall, Norfolk, UK
Whitstable Harbour, Canterbury Council, Whitstable, UK
Tynemouth Station, Tyne and Wear, UK
RBS Gallery, 108 Centre, London, UK
Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Shrewsbury Advisory Service for Climate Change, UK
Westonbirt Festival of the Garden 2004, UK
Grainger Market, Art in the Market, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
University Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Shrewsbury Art Gallery, Shropshire, UK
Kloster Bentlage, Rheine, Germany