Press Conference

Claire Dorsett (1985 - )

acrylic on canvas

2020
  • About the work
    Location
    Country: UK
    City: England
    Place: Manchester, DCMS Hub

    Claire Dorsett paints what she sees around her - often things that most people might consider insignificant but which have meaning to her. Her colour palette is straightforward. She also works with markers and makes her painting in similar sorts of colours, almost never mixing them. She is often drawn to black, as in this work Press Conference, for its photographic quality. Her work titles have a simplicity about them that resonate with her colour palette. ‘The obvious thing’ says Dorsett ‘is often not that obvious [and] the assumption is the mother of all mess-ups’. In her works Dorsett invites viewers to apply the same curiosity to the world as a child might, without baggage or assumptions. Her titles refuse to lead the viewer toward any particular way of seeing the work  ‘I will give you the bare bones,’ she says ‘and the rest is up to you’. Her works are often painted quickly but using what curator Jes Fernie has described as a  ‘a tight visual language’. This way of working conveys an aura of confidence in Dorsett’s paintings that ask the viewer to take a closer look at what might seemingly be a mundane-looking object. ‘I think’ says Dorsett ‘you can impart a lot more by pointing at the things you are looking and thinking about, as well as through storytelling rather than deconstructing...perhaps the work is activated by this dialogue, perhaps that dialogue is actually the work.’


  • About the artist
    Claire Dorsett graduated with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art Painting at The University of Brighton in 2007 and an MFA Painting at The Slade School of Fine Art in 2010. Based in Manchester, recent solo exhibitions of her work have been held at Workplace Foundation, Gateshead (2019); FRONT, STOCK Gallery, Manchester (2018); Title.date.duration, Manchester (2017); and George and Jørgen Gallery, London (2011). Her work has been shown in group exhibitions including at Workplace Foundation, Gateshead; Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester; and Oceans Apart Gallery, Salford (all 2022): TAF/The Art Foundation, Athens; and ICW, Blackpool (2017); HOME, Manchester (2016): BAK, Utrecht, Netherlands (2015); and Space K Gwacheon, Seoul and Gwangju, South Korea (2012).
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    Places
    Subjects
    Materials & Techniques
    acrylic (paint), canvas, paint, acrylic painting
  • Details
    Title
    Press Conference
    Date
    2020
    Medium
    acrylic on canvas
    Dimensions
    height: 55.0 cm; width: 46.0 cm
    Acquisition
    Purchased from Division of Labour, March 2022
    Provenance
    Division of Labour; from whom purchased by UK Government Art Collection, 22 March 2022
    GAC number
    19060