Dominic Clare

Profile

Dominic’s art draws upon a wide variety of cross-cultural sources: from his African birthplace to the ancient history of Britain. There is a sensuous enjoyment in the innocent rawness of form that is resonant and moving. The heartfelt and the humorous collide in much of Dominic’s work. A playful interplay between the found or recycled object and its setting in the sculpture leads to a delight and depth in meaning and materiality.

Dominic gathers local wood or sometimes works with steel and slate. At home too rummaging in scrapyards and on the beaches, as much as in the woods. His ability to transform the salvaged into something other, richer, rarer and new, is a testament to his individual observations and sensitivity to the environment and its detritus.

Myth meets modernity to create potent, primitive forms. Fire, frequently used on the wood, scorches, blackens and seals to tighten surface tension and reveal a purity of form. Weighted with reference to African black woods, death and rebirth there is a power and elegance to his work that is both particular and universal.

While living in Wales Dominic mainly worked on large scale site specific commissions and residencies for public places, making a combination of furniture and sculpture. He enjoys working in and with an environment, especially a natural one where he can respond to the site, the history of the place and its working psycho-geography.

Dominic has now relocated to a larger studio near Bath where he has renovated a former scrap yard in the Cotswolds countryside.

He is making new works for commission and exhibition. You can visit his studio gallery by appointment or on selected open weekends. See the news page for dates.