Clare Rae engages photography, stop motion animation and performance to navigate and defy the limitations of the everyday environments she inhabits. Her works explore tension, portraying situations that offer alternative spatial and psychological interactions between the artist and the possibilities that are held in her surrounds.

Recent solo exhibitions include VIDEOS at Beam Contemporary (2012) and Climbing the Walls and Other Actions (2009) at the Centre for Contemporary Photography. In 2011 Rae was awarded a New Work Grant by the Australia Council for the Arts, and in 2009 she was the recipient of the prestigious CCP/Colour Factory Award. In 2012 she was a finalist in the William and Winifred Bowness Prize at the Monash Gallery of Art, and the Substation Contemporary Art Prize at the Substation Centre for Art and Culture, Newport. Clare is a current research candidate in the Master of Fine Art program at Monash University, and is represented by Beam Contemporary.

In the 2008 Next Wave Festival I was included in the group exhibition Pure Pleasure, which was held at the Men’s Gallery, a strip club in the CBD. This was a one night only event, featuring performances, visual art, and installations. For the project I made a series of photographs depicting my body interacting with the architecture of the Men’s Gallery, the private booths and themed rooms. These photographs were then framed and displayed in the areas where they were captured.

For the 2010 Next Wave Festival I co-curated an exhibition at West Space with Victoria Bennett, entitled The View From Here: 19 Perspectives on Feminism. The project paired artists with writers to examine and broaden feminist dialogues around art. We held an exhibition, produced a publication, and hosted a forum to investigate these ideas.