Claire O'Halloran is a contemporary gold and silversmith working in Melbourne, Australia.
Artist Statement
My work has increasingly become about notions of memory and nostalgia - how events, people and places are remembered. It focuses on our relationship with fragmentary relics and their power to give physical presence to personal and collective memories. Our attempts to conserve relics, even fragmentary ones, speaks to our desire and need to retain and reaffirm our memories. This longing for both physical evidence and representational objects to stand-in for people, times and places is never ending as we seek longed for, lost and unattainable affections.
Resume
Claire's resume can be downloaded here: resume
Exhibitions
2010
National Contemporary Jewellery Award Exhibition, Griffith Regional Gallery, Griffith, Australia
Premio Fondazionne Cominelli Exhibition, Palazzo Cominelli, Padova, Italy
Christmas Showcase, Studio 20/17, Sydney, Australia
2009
Keepsakes (solo exhibition), Handheld Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
It's Got Legs - RMIT Gold & Silversmithing Postgraduate & Alumni Award Exhibition, School of Art Gallery, RMIT, Melbourne, Australia
Agendo Biennial Award Exhibition, Phoenix Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2007
W.E. McMillan Collection: Selected Gold & Silversmithing 1961-2007, Project Space, RMIT, Melbourne, Australia
Wondernamel, First Site Gallery, RMIT, Melbourne, Australia
Contemporary Australian Silver & Metalwork Exhibition, Buda Gallery, Castlemaine, Vic, Australia (touring Victoria 2007-08)
2006
Out of the Basement, The Cottage, RMIT, Melbourne, Australia
2005
Construct, School of Art Gallery, RMIT, Melbourne, Australia
2004
Selected Works, School of Art Gallery, RMIT, Melbourne, Australia
2002
After Taste, School of Art Gallery, RMIT, Melbourne, Australia
Awards
2010
National Contemporary Jewellery Award - Finalist (winner to be determined)
Cominelli Foundation Award - Finalist (winner to be determined)
2009
Diana Morgan RMIT Postgraduate Gold & Silversmithing First Prize
Agendo Biennial Art Award - Finalist
Janet Holmes a Court Artist Grant Recipient
2007
P.J. Williams Award for Innovative Design in Gold & Silversmithing
2006
Emily Hope Award for Figurative Work
Education
Master Fine Art (Gold & Silversmithing), RMIT, 2009-ongoing
Bachelor of Art (Fine Art) (Gold & Silversmithing), RMIT, 2004-2006
Diploma of Visual Art, RMIT, 2002