Clare Kambhu (CV)

Clare Kambhu is an artist based in New York City. She received her MFA in Painting from the Yale School of Art in 2018. Clare holds a BFA in Studio Art and an MA in Art Education from New York University. She has taught in the Yale Prison Education Initiative and works as a public school art teacher. She recently participated in the Art & Law Program and Bronx Museum AIM fellowship. She curated a booth at this year’s SPRING/BREAK art show. Clare is also the recipient of an upcoming apexart Travel Fellowship.

Artist Statement

At a moment in which public education is highly contested, both threatened and threatening, we often see school furniture as a stand in for student bodies. I make observational paintings in public schools, teachers unions, and other bureaucratic spaces. The corners of desks, floor tiles, papers, and chairs are the focus of my attention. The slippery, textural paint application that I use to depict these hard surfaces alludes to the ways in which our idiosyncratic humanness can break through within the constraints of educational institutions. The brush strokes evoke the smudges and wear that the constant movement of people through these spaces creates. How can institutions, ostensibly designed to foster human development, become more fluid and responsive to those who inhabit them? What do we notice? What do we ignore? Where do we find margins, cuts, dents, or holes to operate within as humans?