Clare Woods
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About
Clare Woods chronicles the places, people and things of our world with an unerring eye for the mutable and mysterious. Whether intimate or monumental, her work is at once a site of physical interaction and a cerebral arena in which complexities of representation and painterly truth are scrutinised and challenged.
Woods' singular approach, in which oil paint is applied in characteristically flowing and expressive brushstrokes to aluminium panels laid flat before she views them on a wall, might be thought of as a procedural nod to the Abstract Expressionists’ liberating method of laying unstretched canvases on the ground. Yet, the physicality of the Woods’ practice, pushing paint through paint and mixing colours directly on the aluminium panel, infuses her works’ surfaces with a distinct presence that adds layers of interpretation to her subject matter. As Charlotte Mullins writes, ‘There is a latent tension in her works, in the fault line between the emotive threat of decay and her energetic brushstrokes.’
That fault line often threads through inseparable dualities of beauty and fragility inherent in the art historical genres Woods gravitates towards – the wilting of flowers in her still life paintings, the looming of clouds in her landscapes – or underscores interventions dreamlike and foreboding, chromatic or atmospheric, in the often quotidian scenes she depicts. While earlier works, completed in muted tones, err towards the disorienting or haunting, more recently, saturated, sometimes molten hues serve to intensify a sense of flux and a sliding psychological register. In essence, Woods’ subject matter is this transience. Exploring physical form through fluid mark-making, she alerts us to shifts of mood and meaning and, ultimately, to the fleetingness of life.
Woods’ subjects are drawn from an ever-growing trove of photographs, many taken by the artist, though sometimes put to use only years later when their meaning or feeling is ready to reveal itself in paint. A sense of control – of photographic enlargement, crop and edit, or of images considered over time – finds an unruly companion in her process of painting wet-into-wet, an instinctive method dictated in part by paint itself. As the artist says, ‘The image is the catalyst, but ultimately it is just the starting point.’
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Selected Works
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Biography
Clare Woods was born in Southampton in 1972 and lives and works in Hereford. She received a BA in Fine Art from Bath College of Art in 1994 and an MA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths College, London, in 1999.
Current and forthcoming solo institutional exhibitions include: Clare Woods: Garden Without Seasons, an exhibition of recent paintings and works on paper, Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery, London, UK (29 July–8 November 2026); and an exhibition of tapestries made in collaboration with Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh, at Garden Museum, London, UK (9 October–5 November 2026). Further solo exhibitions will take place at The Holburne Museum, Bath, UK, in January 2027; Towner Eastbourne, UK, in 2028; and Esbjerg Kunstmuseum, Denmark, in 2028. The artist’s first solo exhibition with Victoria Miro will take place in London, UK, in early 2027.
Earlier solo institutional exhibitions include Still Here, an exhibition of prints, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK (2023); Between Before and After, Serlachius Museum, Mänttä, Finland (2022; travelling to CCA Andratx, Mallorca, Spain, 2023, and Norrtälje Konsthall, Sweden, 2024); Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre, UK (2018); Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee, UK (2017); Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, UK (2016); Hestercombe Gallery, Somerset, UK (2016); National Collection of Wales, Oriel-y-Parc, St Davids, UK; Oriel Plas Glyn-y-Weddw, Llanbedrog, UK, Oriel Davies, Newtown, UK (2014–2016); New Art Centre, Roche Court, Salisbury, UK (2013, an exhibition of paintings with sculpture by Eva Rothschild); Harewood House, Yorkshire, UK (2013); Southampton City Art Gallery, Southampton, UK (2011); The Hepworth Wakefield, UK (2011); Chisenhale Gallery, London, UK (2006).
The artist features in current institutional group exhibitions including Earth Matters, Inverleith House Gallery, Edinburgh, UK (until 1 November 2026); Hand Picked: Painting Flowers from 1900 to Today, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, UK (until 6 September 2026); and the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London, UK (until 23 August 2026); and has featured in recent institutional group exhibitions at venues including Gainsborough House, Sudbury, UK (2024–2025); Arnolfini, Bristol, UK (2024); Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, UK (2024); Millennium Gallery, Sheffield, UK (2023); Towner Eastbourne, UK (2023); National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, UK (2021).
In 2022, Woods was elected a Royal Academician by The Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK, and in 2023 curated a selection of still life works for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. In 2019, Woods created a large-scale, site-specific, watercolour mural in the Design District of Dallas, Texas, USA. In 2015, she created a 20 x 8 metre painting for Aarhus VIA University College, Denmark, and in 2012, the Contemporary Art Society, London, UK, commissioned Woods to create a permanent ceramic mural for the Olympic Park, London, UK.
In Spring 2024, Art/Books published volume two of the artist’s monograph, As I Please, a follow up to volume one, published by Art/Books in 2016, entitled Strange Meetings.
Work by the artist is held in numerous institutional collections including Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, New York, USA; Hall Arts Collection, Dallas, USA; Arts Council Collection, UK; Government Art Collection, UK; British Council Collection, UK; Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK; Southampton City Art Gallery, UK; The National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, UK; The Hepworth Wakefield, UK; Southampton City Art Gallery, Southampton, UK; Arken Museum of Contemporary Art, Ishøj, Denmark; CCA Andratx, Mallorca, Spain; Dakis Joannou Collection, Athens, Greece.
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News
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Announcing representation of Clare Woods
July 7, 2026Victoria Miro is delighted to announce representation of Clare Woods. New paintings by the artist will feature in our presentation at The Armory Show, New...Read More -
Clare Woods: Garden Without Seasons opening soon at Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery
July 6, 2026On view 29 July–8 November 2026, the exhibition features new and recent works completed over the past four years. By responding to photographs of flowers...Read More -
Works by Ali Banisadr, Chantal Joffe, Isaac Julien, Grayson Perry, Conrad Shawcross and Clare Woods feature in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2026
June 10, 2026The Summer Exhibition (16 June–23 August 2026) is now open to the public at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. On view are works by...Read More -
Doron Langberg, Chris Ofili, Celia Paul and Clare Woods feature in Handpicked: Painting Flowers from 1900 to Today at Kettle’s Yard
April 20, 2026Inspired by the presence of freshly cut flower displays and paintings in the Kettle’s Yard house, this exhibition (25 April–6 September 2026) presents works featuring...Read More -
Clare Woods features in Earth Matters at Inverleith House Gallery
March 20, 2026On view in Edinburgh until 1 November 2026, the exhibition marks 300 years since the birth of James Hutton, the Edinburgh-born geologist, farmer and thinker...Read More -
Clare Woods – The Roberts Institute of Art Residency
June 14, 2025Invited to join The Roberts Institute of Art Residency in Scotland in June 2025, the artist drew inspiration from the surrounding gardens and landscape. Read...Read More -
New publication – Clare Woods: As I Please
July 25, 2024Published by Art/Books, Clare Woods: As I Please presents all of the artist’s most important paintings of the past decade, as well as the many...Read More -
The small perfection of flower painting – Clare Woods is featured in The Financial Times
May 28, 2024'Her sensuous, richly coloured paintings are starkly contemporary yet also speak to the sumptuous studies Édouard Manet made...' — Clare CoulsonRead More
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