Clarke’s paintings probe the fragmented workings of memory—why certain fleeting moments imprint vividly while others dissolve. Working intuitively, she lets forms surface and withdraw across the picture plane; figures feel faintly remembered, held together by the mutable materiality of oil pain. Starting from old photographs given to her by friends or family members that. connect her present to the past, Cathleen Clarke abstracts familiar subjects to describe thresholds, particularly ones based in age or growth.
Cathleen Clarke (b.1988, Chicago, IL) received a BFA from the Academy of Art University, San Fransisco, CA. Solo exhibitions include: A New Path, Workplace, London, UK (2025); Morning Star, Night Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2025); The Night Grows Long, Margot Samel, New York, NY (2024); Focus: Cathleen Clarke, Workplace, London, UK (2023); Hungry Soul, Nathalie Karg Gallery, New York, NY (2022); Whatever Hour You Woke There Was a Door Shutting, Fou Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (2021). Selected group exhibitions include: Beyond Ecstasy, Stems Gallery, Paris, FR (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, NY (2024); White Columns Annual Benefit & Exhibition, White Columns, New York, NY (2024); Dreamscape, Ames Yavuz Gallery, Sydney, AU (2024); Night at Dunes, Dunes Gallery in collaboration with Night Gallery, Portland, ME (2024); The Blue Hour, Workplace, London, UK (2023); Maskenfreiheit, Margot Samel, New York, NY (2023); BREATHLESS!, Myriam Chair Gallery, Paris, FR (2023); Evening Shadow, Make Room, Los Angeles, CA (2023); Holiday Capsule, Platform Art (2022); Vanitas, Nathalie Karg Gallery, New York, NY (2021); tHP: Beacon, Satellite Art Club, Brooklyn, NY (2022); Flat Files Program, Collar Works, Troy, NY (2022); Speculative Interiors, NARS Foundation, New York, NY (2020); Giddy & Dreadful, SK Art, New York, NY (2019); and The Body Responds By Lying Down, NARS Foundation, Brooklyn, NY (2019).
