Clare Phelan

Print Specialisms – Photo Etching and Collagraph

Clare is a printmaker who works directly with the ancestors of our digital world. Cyber culture theory, and the idea of a ‘cultural lag’ in our understanding of advancing technology inform her work. In the making of her distinctive abstract prints, she uses found objects of nineteenth and twentieth century coding technology, including textile jacquards, musical box discs and IBM punch cards. Steel music box discs become etching plates, and cardboard/paper artefacts are used to make Collagraph prints. Following a twenty year career as an Art Psychotherapist, Clare returned to education, completing an MA in Visual Art in 2014. She subsequently spent three years honing her printmaking skills on the Complete Printmaker Programme run by Hot Bed Press in Salford. Shortlisted for the Flourish Award for Excellence in Printmaking in 2017, and a recipient of the Art& RAW Talent Award Scheme. Also shortlisted for the 2019 London Contemporary Art Prize and winner of the Scott Creative Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award 2019.