Artist Spotlight - Claire Davenhall — Contemporary Art Curator Magazine

Biography

Claire Davenhall is an International Artist and Master Scuba Diver, specializing in Fine Art Sculpture and Art Education. She holds a BA(Hons) in Fine Art from Gray’s School of Art at Robert Gordon University, which took her to study at both Athens School of Fine Art and North Karelia Polytechnic in Finland.

Silent Blue Sentinel, 2025, Digital Underwater Photograph

She received a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) and is currently pursuing a Master of Education at Sheridan Institute of Higher Education. As an educator, Claire has made significant contributions to Creative Education, earning her the Governor's Award for Excellence in Teaching & Learning.

The Crow's Nest, 2025, Digital Underwater Photograph

Since migrating to Australia, Claire has exhibited at major national and international sculpture festivals, including Sculpture by the Sea (WA), Swell Sculpture Festival (QLD), Sculpture in the Gaol (NSW), Castaways (WA), and Brighton Jetty Classic Sculptures (SA). Her achievements include winning the Shinju Matsuri ‘A View to Asia’ Prize (2016) and the Drift Installation Awards Major Prize (2017).

Sanctuary in the Lena, 2024, Digital Underwater Photograph

In 2018, Claire was selected to exhibit at Sculpture at Scenic World (NSW) alongside 39 world-class artists. That same year, she received a Creative Development Grant from the Department of Culture & the Arts (WA) and was awarded the International Guest Panellist’s Choice Award at the Walker Gallery (UK) for her innovative approach to drawing and participatory art events.

Tethered to the Deep Blue, 2024, Digital Underwater Photograph

In 2019, she received an Honorable Mention at the CFA Artist of the Year Awards. Claire's recent projects continue to garner international recognition. In 2021, she exhibited at the International Indian Ocean Craft Triennial (IOTA21), and her work has been published in notable art publications, including International Contemporary Masters Vol. 14 (2021), The Power of Creativity (2022), and Voices of Tomorrow (2023).

Portal to the Deep, 2025, Digital Underwater Photograph

Her touring exhibition, Lost Soles, explores the migration stories of people journeying to Australia. Using found objects, this body of work uncovers narratives of displacement, resilience, and identity, connecting audiences with historical and contemporary migration experiences. The exhibition was featured at the Maritime Festival at the Vancouver Arts Centre in Albany in July 2024.

Drifting Through Time, 2025, Digital Underwater Photograph

Claire continues to create thought-provoking, immersive sculptural works that bridge history, storytelling, and environmental themes, reinforcing her role as an influential artist and educator in the contemporary art world.

Stairway, 2025, Digital Underwater Photograph

Artist Statement

This new body of work ‘BLUE – Echoes from the Indian Ocean’ explores Western Australia’s Shipwreck Coast. Blue is the colour of the world's edge—a place beyond the cartographer's ink, where imagination unfurls. It is the hue of the ocean as we leave the shore, its deepening folds stirring curiosity and wonder.

The Passage, November 2024, Digital Underwater Photograph

Western Australia’s treacherous Shipwreck Coast, with its submerged histories and lost vessels, serves as the conceptual foundation for this work. By shifting perspective and placing the viewer inside these wrecks looking outward her work reconfigures traditional narratives of shipwrecks as sites of loss into sites of transformation.

Windows from the Bridge, 2024, Digital Underwater Photograph

It examines the interplay between history, deep time, and the unknown depths of human experience. It is a powerful meditative perception of history, and the unseen forces shaping our relationship and impact with the ocean.

The Maze, 2025, Digital Underwater Photograph

Claire’s underwater photographs capture the hidden wonders of the Indian Ocean, where shipwrecks, shifting light, and vibrant marine life come to life through the deep blue, revealing a few of the ocean’s hidden stories.

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