About
Clara Durán is a synesthetic artist based in Madrid. She graduated in Fine Arts (Universidad Complutense Madrid) with studies at Loyola University of Chicago and later completed a Master’s Degree in Visual Arts at the University of the Arts London. She is currently developing her PhD thesis in Fine Arts at UCM Madrid. She has been recipient of various fellowships and awards and her exhibitions have traveled through Madrid, Seville, Chicago, London, Hadseløya, Évora and Bucharest. She has collaborated with renowned artists such as Javier Vallhonrat, Lilli Hartmann or Teresa Margolles and has also worked at LUMA Museum in Chicago and at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest (MNAC).
She guides women’s circles in the form of workshops, where the focus is on cyclical creativity and the parallelism between the art process and the life process itself.
Her work investigates the union of the material and the spiritual in the experience with nature. She explores the extraordinary relationship between women and water – with a special interest in rivers – as well as the activation of the four elements in the imagination. She proposes photography through an open, interdisciplinary and experimental perspective that establishes connections with painting, poetry and sound. Thus, the different languages converge in the same artistic body and the sensorial, material, spiritual and symbolic dimensions are intertwined.
Awards / Fellowships
- 2016+2017: ARTIST/DEVELOPERS RESIDENCY | NORDLAND AKADEMI FOR KUNST OG VITENSKAP
- 2015: GRADUATE ART PRIZE | ARTIQ LONDON
- 2015: INJUVE AWARD MADRID
- 2014: POSTGRADUATE SCHOLARSHIP | FUNDACIÓN MUTUA MADRILEÑA
- 2012: PROVOST FELLOWSHIP | LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO
Exhibitions
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2023: MUSEO DE NAVARRA PAMPLONA
- 2019: ENCAPSULADOS ÉVORA
- 2017: INSTITUTO CERVANTES BUCHAREST
- 2017: NORSK FISKEINDUSTRIMUSEUM VERSTERÅLEN
- 2016: ARTSEVILLA
- 2016: LUUM | LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL
- 2016: #TRIBE16 LONDON
- 2016: UAL SUMMER SHOW LONDON
- 2015: GITOON GALLERY LONDON
- 2015: UAL OPEN STUDIO LONDON
- 2014: H’ARTS LANE LONDON
- 2014: UCM BELLAS ARTES FINAL SHOW MADRID
- 2012: RAPH ARNOLD GALLERY CHICAGO
- 2011: ESPACIO NARANJO MADRID
Clara’s photographic work expresses a high commitment exploring symbolic, expressive and formal levels in a unique way. Her experimental and open approach to the use of photography in a larger field of media doesn’t contradict an honest interest for photography as a media with a huge artistic potential. Through her different series and pieces, Clara shows passion as well as extraordinary artistic intelligence and sensitivity.
~ Javier Vallhonrat