CLAIRE MILNER ART

STATEMENT

Claire Milner is a British artist based in North Yorkshire. She works in collections which are continuously evolving around the central theme of nature, our place within it and encroachment upon it. Environmental references such as climate change and mass extinction have been the central focus of her image making for more than two decades. Milner’s artworks include diverse mediums such as paint, paper, collage, typography and mixed media. As a signifier of her familial ties to Italy, she also incorporates crystal methodologies and the ancient art of mosaic into her work as a representation of light and shade in a symbiosis of the past and present. The impact of humanity is always implicit within her artworks, even when the human figure is absent or plays a minor role in the composition. Following an extensive history of animal images in art, her portrayal of animals’ interchanges between the metaphoric and the literal, sometimes using them to tackle issues of human displacement. Milner’s process begins with extensive research behind the content of each collection, engaging in hours of study, compiling statistics and viewing painful imagery of the consequences of poaching, habitat loss and climate change. A great deal of consideration is given to the integration of this material into the final composition. Here realistic and abstract elements coexist alongside carefully selected art historical references and themes from classical literature to form a balance of topical and historical narratives. Milner has taken extensive research trips to Africa, South America, Asia and Australia for commissioned and personal bodies of work, and these travels continue to inform her current collections. Inspired by her love of Africa and recalling time spent living there, Milner’s paintings are at once vibrant and stark, accentuating the uneasy juxtaposition of abundance and loss. Through her work she continually examines the connection and disconnect between humankind and the natural world where commercial values are contrasted with environmental ideals as determinants of worth in a consumer society where living creatures become commodities.

Milner’s visual vocabulary includes further motifs alluding to politics, science and themes focusing on the inequitable position of female artists in the canon of art history. Here, representations of the Greco-Roman world and paintings from art history originally created by men, are subverted to focus on the ‘female gaze’. These works delve deeper into the subject of identity and individuality and examine fashion as a means of expression, incorporating recurring elements such as architecture and animals and revisiting themes from mythology. The female subjects are a combination of statuary and world citizen, free of racial or defining features, looking to the future with a mischievous nod to the past in calling attention to the subjectivity of women in historical art. Whilst being acutely aware of the lack of visibility of women in the history of art, Milner believes that when ‘female artists’ are widely seen as artists who happen to be female, some progress will have been made. This is the reason that the majority of the subjects she interprets are universal. She states ‘Climate change, our impact on the environment, habitat loss and the current rapid rate of extinction are all issues which have devastating implications as some of the biggest challenges we face, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, class or religion. Without the resolution of these overarching issues, we will not have the luxury to concern ourselves with others.’ Milner evokes her own values, beliefs, hopes and concerns in a fusion of densely layered compositions signifying both chaos and order, to elicit an initial emotional connection with many levels of meanings and discoveries to be made on closer inspection and subsequent viewings.

COLLECTIONS

Anima Mundi (2019 – 2020) is a collection which spotlights the intrinsic connection between all living things on the planet. This equitability of importance between all living organisms is underscored by challenging the usual hierarchy of foreground and background and giving equal significance in the compositions between figures, flora and fauna. The works are both allegorical and literal and simultaneously present a utopian and dystopian viewpoint. Self-portraits appear as ‘protector of the animals’ and environment, making up the majority of the canvas, but certain repeating themes are signifiers that in an otherwise halcyon landscape, all is not quite as it seems. The butterfly represents chaos theory and the idea that initial small changes may ultimately have profound effects, such as the extensive impact of climate change. Paint skins with printed text and photographic imagery showing graphic scenes of poaching are camouflaged into some paintings. The photographic images are difficult to pick out at first sight, but once noticed are hard to forget and have a multi-layered tactile aesthetic, presenting a surface optimism with a depth that concurrently speaks to much darker issues. Panels show camera phones detailing the impact of threats facing the natural world indicating indifference and detachment when viewed through a lens. These references to topical culture place the work directly in the present tense, yet the jungle paintings are simultaneously Rousseau inspired, reaching backwards into art history.

Anthropocene Xtinction (2018) is a collection of paintings highlighting the unnatural pressures inflicted on the natural world by humanity. Bringing together many elements of Holocene Twilight and True Value, the monochromatic panels highlight potential irreversible loss, and the crystal mosaic cross on the faces of the principal animals, at once highlights a sense of preciousness and jeopardy.

Allegories of Identity (2016 - 2017) is a collection influenced by historical paintings and sculpture in a convergence of classical, modern and contemporary imagery. Taking strong female figures in mythology as a starting point and considering the animal world and contemporary fashion as a means of expression and identity, the compositions reflect and set the mood for the couture in the manner of a surrealist film set. The female subjects are a combination of statuary and world citizen, free of racially defining features. They simultaneously look to the past and present in referencing contemporary gender equality issues. Some of the works are influenced by the paintings of Gaugin and Rousseau but focus on the ‘female gaze’. The women who populate these paintings confront the viewer, challenging the subjectivity of the depictions of women in art history. The ocean painting in this collection is entitled The Physical Impossibility Of Captivity In The Mind Of Someone Free (2017), it features Andromeda breaking free from her chains juxtaposed with the electrical symbol of resistance. Both the encapsulated shark and the title make reference to Damien Hirst’s work, but the play on the title is also co-opted to allude to the crisis of worldwide migration and conflict. All of the compositional elements are underwater suggesting a climate change apocalypse in a world of opposites represented by water and electricity. (See website for details Claire Milner Artist )

Holocene Twilight (2015 - 2016) is a collection of monochromatic paintings which develop the theme of, and contrast with the previous crystal mosaic collection entitled True Value. Grisaille oil paintings represent fading memories and loss. Endangered species within urban settings become metaphors for displacement. The works highlight the inconvenient truth that through apathy, financial and political vested interests, world leaders seem unwilling to deal with the most difficult issues that face us. The monochromatic images recall black and white tv, old photographs and memories of things long gone. A selection of the works reference Guernica, thus representing a clarion call for war against poaching, climate change and habitat degradation. A reimagined version of Pietro Longhi’s Exhibition of a Rhinoceros at Venice is the first of this suite of paintings. In the second painting, the Lion of Saint Mark, the symbol of Venice, has turned on its axis to face away from the city in the same direction as the displaced lion viewed by stupefied onlookers. The Unknown commissioned by British actress and activist Virginia McKenna and sold to British actress and activist Joanna Lumley, is an allegorical painting which flips socio-political power disparities. It focuses on the little five, as opposed to the usual 'Big Five' who are now concealed in the Rousseau inspired background. Born Free Commission

True Value (2013 - 2015) is a collection of large-scale paintings which feature crystal mosaics depicting keystone species. Isolated in the picture plane, the creatures are elevated to the importance of human portraits, displaying an irreplaceability and an entwined destiny. Precious crystal mosaics are undercut by semi-abstract painted backgrounds and graffiti drawing attention to multiple threats in the ‘dead’ language of Latin that few understand. Creatures created from thousands of individual elements appear as abstract images on close scrutiny, and on viewing from a distance they represent the last of their species as the big picture emerges into focus. These distinctions of detailed decoration and minimalism are utilized as a metaphor for abundance and extinction. The handprints reference the birth of art in the earliest cave and rock paintings and the hand of man as a huge force for both good and ill.

Reflecting The Image (2009 - 2011) is a collection influenced by historical portraiture, popular throughout human history, created with a contemporary twist in the crystal mosaic portraits which form a major part of this collection. Mosaic is an ancient art which has a rich history dating back to the third century BC. From the Greeks, Romans and Byzantine mosaics, to the Art Nouveau movement, it is now enjoying a welcome renaissance in the 21st Century. The crystal mosaic portraits partially reflect the viewer, making observer and observed integral to the work, a commentary on the culture of celebrity and the age of the selfie. This allusion is further enhanced by the informality of the close-cropped compositions. The works present an abstract quality, as a series of pointillist dots when viewed up close, which emerge as a coherent image as the viewer steps back. The crystal mosaic portrait commissioned by Rihanna of Marilyn Monroe (5ft x 5ft), was created with 65,000 hand-applied Swarovski Elements. It represents the separate yet entwined identities of public and private personas. The artwork hides a secret painted portrait of Norma Jeane on the reverse, whilst the crystal Marilyn Monroe, her famous alter ego stares out at the world. In the same way, the hidden portrait largely remained unobserved in all of the press coverage which was generated by the commission. The portrait of the Queen was created in celebration of the Diamond Jubilee, with Swarovski Aurora Borealis special effects crystals. From certain angles a diamond effect is presented and from others a definitive red, white and blue appearance as the crystals change colour.

Earlier artwork collections in handmade paper collage, mosaic, and crystal mosaic all represent an organic progression of processes of construction and deconstruction to both thematically and technically demonstrate appearance and disappearance.

BIOGRAPHY

Claire Milner studied her Foundation in Art and Design at Harrogate School of Art, and went on to Coventry Polytechnic, U.K. from which she graduated in Graphic Design and Typography. Before devoting her career to fine art, she worked as an illustrator in London, where she was commissioned by many large corporations and publishing companies. She illustrated portraits of British Chancellors Gordon Brown and Nigel Lawson for major publications, leading to further portrait commissions of politicians, Central European Bankers and company CEOs such as Sir Terry Leahy, Sir Martin Sorrell and Lord Browne. An African trip inspired the painting ‘Mother and Child’, a mixed media work which was exhibited in Cambridge and acquired by CamFed, an organization which helps fight poverty in Africa by educating and empowering girls, and who subsequently commissioned five similar artworks to form a series. In the early nineties Milner studied under the eminent international mosaic artist Elaine M Goodwin, founder of Tessellated Expression for the 21st Century (TE-21). This was to welcome a new departure for her work, whilst at the same time representing an organic evolution of her early paper collage illustrations.

Milner’s work has raised large funds for conservation and environmental organisations. In 2015 Burning Bright (True Value Collection) created with 32,000 Swarovski crystals representing ten times the number of tigers left in the wild, was exhibited at Hotel Café Royal, auctioned at The Savoy Hotel, London, and sold to an art collector in Germany via Paddle8 in aid of Save Wild Tigers, The Born Free Foundation and The Environmental Investigation Agency. In 2016 Milner's crystal mosaic portrait of an elephant-poaching victim Delicate And Mighty (True Value Collection) was sold to a collector in New York in aid of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi. In November 2017 the artist's mixed media painting entitled The Unknown (Holocene Twilight Collection) commissioned by actress and animal activist Virginia McKenna was auctioned in aid of the Born Free Foundation and sold to actress and activist Joanna Lumley. In December 2017, Milner's painting entitled Ocean Rainforest (Anthropocene Extinction Collection) featuring coral reefs and sea turtles won the Oceanic Global x Alpha'a Artivism Challenge, following which it was exhibited during Art Basel Miami. The competition utilised the visual arts to raise awareness about six critical issues impacting our ocean. The judges included Susan Rockefeller, Dustin Yellin, Aaron Levi Garvey, Doumi Busturia, Alexandre Arrechea and Zaria Forman. Milner's painting entitled Symbiosis (Anthropocene Extinction Collection), a companion piece to Ocean Rainforest went on to be a 2018 1ST ARTSLANT Prize Showcase Winner. Milner was subsequently featured in Musings Magazine in December 2019 by Susan Rockefeller. Her work appeared in The Observer in April 2020 alongside pioneering artist Judy Chicago in a feature about her Create Art For Earth campaign.

Claire Milner's artworks are held in a number of private collections, including Blue Marilyn in the collection of Rihanna. The portrait has been widely featured by the global media, it has appeared on The Official Website of The Estate of Marilyn Monroe, and has been showcased by Swarovski. It was included in a special edition of Vogue Paris which was guest edited by Rihanna who featured the work in a profile of her favourite things. Milner's portrait of Amy Winehouse appeared in an exhibition curated by the Amy Winehouse Foundation to mark what would have been the late singer's 30th birthday. The artist’s semi abstract artwork representing under sea volcanoes and life in the ocean depths entitled ‘Hydrothermal Vents’ is in the collection of Professor Iain Stewart, BBC Broadcaster and head of Department of Earth Sciences at Plymouth University. Milner's work has been displayed in museum exhibitions in the UK including: Ripon Cathedral, York Minster, Corinium Museum, Canal Museum, Pontefract Museum, Museum in the Park, as well as installations in Harrods and Whiteley's. Her paintings have been featured internationally in the media (see press page) including The BBC, BLOUIN ARTINFO, Channel News Asia, Elle, Forbes, Huffington Post Arts, The Observer, Save Virunga, The Telegraph, The Times, Vogue Paris, Vogue India and many others and described as "metaphors of our time" in examining the effects of humans on each other and on other species.