New Graduate Award – Lucy Claire 'Left for Ruins'

Each year The Whitaker offers a new arts graduate from the north west their first solo show with a fee and professional development support from our Creative Director.

This year's graduate is Lucy Claire.

Lucy Claire is an artist based at Hot Bed Press located in Salford. She recently graduated from the University of Salford's BA (Hons) Fine Art course and during this programme, her practice was firmly centred around the possibilities and properties of materials. Inspired by museum collections, primarily taxidermy and classical sculpture, her practice encompasses photography, printmaking, and laser engraving. Her final degree show demonstrated a concern with natural elements and how they can be used to produce an artificial image of perfection. She experimented with engraving classical statues into stock bricks to add a northern twist. She has also undertaken experimentation with cyanotype prints on handmade plaster of paris tiles and laser engraving details to create distorted images of classical sculpture.

Lucy is working on a project for her MA in Contemporary Fine Art, exploring discarded buildings, left to ruin but embraced and inhabited by nature. She is also exploring how red brick buildings are becoming less frequent and increasingly discarded. A selection of her work from this new project will be on display as part of the New Graduate show.