Nuala Clarke, visual artist, born Dublin. BA in Fine Art Painting, NCAD 1993. Afterwards moved to New York City. Showed with Thomas Werner Gallery, Chelsea (2005/6) & Boltax Gallery, Shelter Island, NY (2005-11). In 2007, received a fellowship to the Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Mayo and began returning to Ireland from NY to work every year. In 2013 moved full time to the West of Ireland. Represented by Sara Nightingale Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY. On the Board of The Yeats Society, Sligo. Part time Learning Curator at The Ballinglen Arts Foundation. Works often in collaboration with writer Crystal Gandrud.
Book publications:
Radiating Outwards, Incrementally, a manual, Crystal Gandrud and Nuala Clarke. The Owl Circus, Release date June 2024
Irish Moss of a Dead Man’s Skull, Nuala Clarke, The Owl Circus, relaease date February 2025
Presented talk: Creativity - correlations between the work methods of an artist and a scientist at The Rorbert Boyle Foundation Summer School, in Waterford and Lismore Art and Science.
Awards:
The Fingal Artist Bursary 2024 - for a mentor session and time in the studio working abstractly.
The Mayo Artist Bursary 2022 - for research costs into arts and health modalities.
The Fingal Artist Bursary 2023 - for costs related to a residency at Uillinn, the West Cork Arts Centre to conduct Experiments in Listening.
The Mayo Artist Bursary 2022 - to develop ‘The Dream Drawing’, a piece of work made of paper into aluminium.
The Fingal Artist Bursary 2022 - to research and visit 17th Century Recipe Books and household medicinal records in the National Library of Ireland and British Library, specifically those of the Boyle Family.
The Arts Council Visual Arts Bursary 2020
The Arts Council COVID-19 Crisis Response Award- resulting in ‘so I have observed’ - a five part video series.
Solo Exhibitions:
2022
Moving Outwards Incrementally, Two person Exhibition with Shona Macdonald. Ballina Arts Centre, Mayo (Sept 2022)
2020
A Convenient Wind, Sara Nightingale Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY
2019
Experiments and Considerations Touching Colour, The Dream Drawing, Aras Inis Gluaire, Belmullet, Co. Mayo,
Experiments and Considerations Touching Colour, Custom House Gallery, Westport, Co. Mayo
2018
OU TOPOS, Claremorris Gallery, Claremorris, Co. Mayo.
2017
As Above So Below, The Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar, Co. Mayo
2016
Absence - Presence, Charlestown Art Centre, Charlestown, Co. Mayo
2013
To Tremble into Stillness, Hamilton Gallery, Sligo.
a drawing for everything, Ballinglen Arts Foundation Gallery, Ballycastle, Co. Mayo
2010
Moving Outwards Incrementally, Boltax Gallery, Shelter Island, NY
One of One Thousand Worlds installation, Fountain Art Fair, New York, NY
2009
What’s the Matter?, Higher Bridges Gallery, Enniskillen, N. Ireland
2007
Breakup Paintings: Boltax Gallery, Shelter Island, NY
2006
Two Reasons for One Sound (collaborative project): Thomas Werner Gallery, New York, NY
2005
OnePlusOneEqualsThree: Boltax Gallery, Shelter Island, NY
2004
Ireland Conceptual: Internat Fredeburg, Bad Fredeburg, Germany
2002
New Paintings (collaborative project): HNTB Architecture, Washington, DC
2001
Collaboration (collaborative project): Verve Music Group, New York, NY
2000
New Paintings (collaborative project): Fox + Fowle Architects, New York, NY
1995
Nuala Clarke: The Gallery Upstairs, Flamingo East, New York, NY
1994
Mother and Daughter: Sligo Art Gallery, Sligo
Recurring Group Exhibitions:
Royal Hibernian Annual Exhibition, Dublin: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020 (Invited) 2019, 18, 17, 13 (invited Artist) 06, 05, 00, 99
Iontas 2007, 2005, 2003, 2002, 1999, 1998, 1993, 1991
Oireachtas Exhibition, Dublin, Ireland,2002, 2000, 1998, 1993, 1991
Boyle Arts Festival, Boyle, Co. Roscommon, 2024, 2023, 2018, 2017, 2016
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2024
Bucolica, Artform at Mount Congreve House, Waterford
Visual Presence, Boyle Arts Festival Exhibition, King House, Boyle, Co. Roscommon.
Kwaidan: Encounters with Lafcadio Hearn / An Exhibition of Work by Irish and Japanese Artists travelling throughout Japan and Ireland, including to The Ballinglen Museum of Art, Mayo, The Hyde Bridge Gallery at the Yeats Society, Sligo, The Hunt Museum Limerick.
2023
The First International Biennial: The Ballinglen Museum of Art, Mayo. *work received an award from the selection panel (2023)
Connections, Boyle Arts Festival, King House, Boyle Co. Roscommon.
Dream Drawing - wind, Onsight 2023 - National Museum of Ireland, Country Life, Turlough, Co. Mayo
Kwaidan: Encounters with Lafcadio Hearn / An Exhibition of Work by Irish and Japanese Artists, The Lafcadio Hearn Museum, Matsue, Japan.
.
2022
Inherit, Place|Lab Collective, Selected by Joanna Kidney and Nuala Clarke, Ballinglen Gallery, (August 2022). Touring to CASC, Chester, UK (Nov 2022) + Springville Museum of Art, Utah USA (2024).
Abstractions: Landscapes and Otherscapes: curated by Ruth Fine,The Ballinglen Museum of Art, Mayo.
2021
The Way That We Went, curated by Anne Mullee, Ballinglen Museum of Art, Ballycastle, Co.Mayo.
2020
ARTWORKS 2020, The Sky is Blue, VISUAL Carlow, Carlow Arts Festival
28 Years Rambling through the Landscape, The Ballinglen Museum of Art Inaugural Exhibition,
Ballycastle, Co.Mayo
Among School Children, Hamilton Gallery, Sligo
2019
Odd Nature Group Show, Santa Fe Community College’s Visual Arts Gallery, New Mexico
St. Brigid’s Day Exhibition with Hamilton Gallery, Sligo, London, Dublin and Berlin
Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen, Hamilton Gallery, Sligo, New York City.
2018
Ballinglen Arts Foundation Collection, RHA Gallery, Dublin
An Irish Airman Foresees His Death, Hamilton Gallery, Sligo
1FTSQ, Shrule Art Centre, Omagh and Hambly and Hambly, Enniskillen, N. Ireland.
2017
From Nature: Duncan Pickstock and Nuala Clarke, Ballinglen Gallery, Ballycastle, Co. Mayo
Crazy Jane, Hamilton Gallery, Sligo
2016
Overlap, Aras Eanna, Inis Oirr, Galway
A Terrible Beauty is Born, Hamilton Gallery, Sligo
Code/Switch, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, Ill
2015
Of this Place, contemporary reflections from Yeats Country, Hamilton Gallery, Sligo
Of this Place, contemporary reflections from Yeats Country El Ateneo, Madrid
Impressions of W.B. Yeats, Hamilton Gallery, Sligo
Reinventing the Helm, Sara Nightingale Gallery, Watermill, NY
Summer Show; Catherine Hammond Gallery, Glengarriff, Co. Cork
2013
What Remains; Plug Projects, Kansas City, MO
Numberless Dreams; Yeats Day Exhibition, Hamilton Gallery, Sligo
2012
Amid a Space Between: Irish Artists in America, Helen O’Leary, Katie Holten, Helen O’Toole, Nuala Clarke, Alen MacWeeney, Richard Mosse, SFMOMA artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA
‘Nuala Clarke provides a contemporary take. Her multi-layered paintings evoke the cold, harsh, windswept isle of her birth in ways you can feel. Like the collagist Leslie Shows, Clarke demonstrates a keen appreciation for the creative and destructive power of nature, expressing it in broad, gestural strokes that reveal a wellspring of emotional longing and conflict. The works unfurl across shifting planes and ambiguous viewpoints, probing surface and subject with the authority of lived experience. ‘
2010
New Artists Preview, Galleri Urbane, Dallas, TX
2009
Preview: 2010, Blank Space Gallery, New York, NY
1 FT SQ, Higher Bridges Gallery, Enniskillen, N. Ireland
The Great Redundant, Sebastian Guinness Gallery, Temple Bar, Dublin
32nd Annual NYU Small Works, 80 Washington Square East Galleries at New York University, New York, NY
2008
Images from North Mayo, Courthouse Gallery, Ballycastle, Co Mayo
new work from old friends, Boltax Gallery, Shelter Island, NY
Dublin Painting and Sketching Club, Annual Exhibition (member 2002-2008)
Beacon - an exhibition of works from the Ballinglen Arts Foundation Collection, The Ballina Arts Centre, Co Mayo
2007
Fear Not, Iontas: Sligo Art Gallery, Sligo
La Zona Art Show, Red Hook, Brooklyn, NY
Breaking New Ground: The Power and Variety of Landscape, Chapman Gallery, Iona College, New Rochelle, NY
2005
Paper One: Thomas Werner Gallery, New York, NY
Small Works: 80 Washington Square East Galleries, NYU, New York, NY
2004
Watercolours: Sligo Art Gallery, Sligo
New Works, Mixed Company, Philadelphia, PA
2003
Group Show: Solomon Gallery, Dublin
New Work, “0609” Lakeside, MI
2002
Recent Acquisitions: The Bank of Ireland Arts Center, Dublin, Ireland
2000
Works on Paper: The LeMoyne Art Foundation, Tallahassee, Florida
1999
A Salute to the New Millennium: Sligo Art Gallery
1998
On Board: Sligo Art Gallery
Latitude Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1997
Viva Gallery, Berkeley, CA
Collaborative Performance: Gallery Oboy, San Francisco, CA
Road Trip: Sticks Gallery, Albany, CA
1996
Irish Festival: Europa Intercontinental Hotel, Brussels, Belgium
1994
Group Show: Kilcock Art Gallery, Kilcock, County Kildare
1993
NCAD Degree Show: RHA Gallery, Dublin
Perfect: Mosaic Books, New York, NY
Interview and Featured Artist in Book:
Look, Look, Look, Look, Look Again: Buddhist Wisdom Reflected in 26 Artists, Kevin Thomas Townley, Jr. published by Lionheart Press, a division of the Open Heart Project, 14 Feb 2022. Chapter on Karma Family., p.248 -256
Public Art:
2015
On Sight 2015, National Museum of Ireland, Country Life, Turlough, Co. Mayo
2014
Blink: Westport Arts Festival, Westport, Co. Mayo.
Find: public art project collaboration with The Linenhall and Mayo County Council, Castlebar, Co. Mayo.
Represented by: Sara Nightingale, Sag Harbor, NY.
Talk: Presented at the 8th Robert Boyle Summer School, Waterford and Lismore, June 2019.
Artist in Residence at:
Brigham Young University, Utah (2017) and
York St John University, York, UK in association with Drawing Matters Group (2018).
Fellow of The Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Co. Mayo from 2007.
Research residency at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre. 2023
Curating: Border Walls: artists, Rita Duffy, Sama Alshaibi, Eileen Ferguson, Ariane Littman, Larissa Sansour, Consuelo Jimenez Underwood. Boltax Gallery, Shelter Island, NY Sept/Oct 2008
Performance: with G.L.U. (global lawnchair unit)
“This is a test” Coney Island/Jersey City, Aug 9+10 2008
“sitdown instructionist, 3 minute version”, Nola Rising festival, Oct 2008, NYC
with Crystal Gandrud
“Fair Shouldered one” La Sorbonne, Paris, &Now literary Festival, June 8 2012
Education: BA Fine Art, Painting, NCAD, Dublin 1993
CD Covers: For Verve Records: Lee Ritenour “World of Brazil”, (released 2005) John Coltrane “Legacy” box set, (released 2002) Roy Haynes Trio, Featuring Danilo Perez and John Patitucci, (released 2000)
Collections: The Permanent Collection, The Ballinglen Museum of Art / Office of Public Works, Dublin, Ireland (1993 and 2019) / Bayer Ltd. / Bank of Ireland (and cd-rom art.bank) / NYU Law School / Georgia Power / Rob Thomas (Musician) / The Westin Hotel Times Square, New York and Dallas / Macys Department Store / Hughes, Hubbard and Reed LLP / Clark McDowell Design / Jose Gaspart, Husa Hoteles, Spain / S. Russell Groves, Furniture and Interior Design / Department of Fish and Forestry, Dublin Ireland / Enterprise Ireland / Private Collections.
Publications:
“Abstract Lyricism” by Isabella Evangelisisti, Irish arts Review, Spring (March-May 2019). p. 72, 73
"Borders, Boundaries and Barricades" by Elizabeth Fasolino, East Hampton Star, Arts, August 29th 2008
“Portrait of an Artist” by Anna Marie Flynn, The Western People. Tuesday, November 13th 2007
“Breaking Up is Hard to Do”, by Jennifer Landes, the East Hampton Star, Arts, Opinion, May 15 2007
New York Home, January/February 2006 pp.84. (article on Page Goolrick, Architect with credit)
Hamptons Cottages and gardens May 2005, pp. 50 (Event Planner and Date Book, Editors Choice)
“Hanging in There.” The State (Columbia, SC) Friday, March 12, 2004, p.E24
Arizona Foothills, March 2002, p. 175. (article on Fannin Interiors)
"Irish Exhibition in Tallahassee." Sligo Weekender (Ireland), Friday, January 21,2000
People, October 4, 1999, p. 22. (article on actress Keri Russell of "Felicity")
Interior Design, September 1999, pp. 238-239. (article on Page Goolrick, Architect, with credit)
"All ‘On Board’ for New Exhibition." Sligo Weekender (Ireland), Friday, December 11, ‘98
"Ireland’s Leading Artists ‘On Board’ at Gallery Exhibition." The Sligo Champion (Ireland), Wednesday, December 9, 1998
Catalogues:
Iontas 17th national small works art competition and exhibition 2007
Breakup Paintings, Nuala Clarke, Boltax Gallery May 2007
FIND ART PROJECT, A Mayo County Council Arts Office Public Art Programme initiative in collaboration with the Linenhall Arts Centre, March 2014