About

Claire Callinan is a Dublin-based visual artist working primarily in paint. She graduated from NCAD with a Ba(Hons) in Fine Art Media and completed the Painting Resolution course with the RHA. Claire has had work in numerous group shows, including the 2025 Kilkenny Portrait Show; 'Resolve 25' at the RHA and the upcoming inaugural Hunt Open Submission Exhibition. She has recently undertaken a residency at Kylemore Abbey. "Past tense: f r a g m e n t e d" is Claire's first solo exhibition.
"Past tense: f r a g m e n t e d" tackles our personal loss of innocence as we transition through life and, inevitably, our inability to reclaim it. It also focuses on the loss of memory as one ages or, in some cases, develops dementia and often reverts to childlike tendencies - this time with a layer of decay as opposed to innocence. While these stages are universal experiences, they can be entirely isolating moments.

Using film photography as reference for her paintings Claire represents how memory, like film, degrades over time and poses the question as to whether photography can be an accurate reflection of memory.
She manipulates the images and uses oil paints in order to give these transitional losses a sense of permanence and weight. Segments of the paintings are left to reveal the gouache underpainting as a way of physically representing the disconnection with self.