Born and raised in Versailles, Claire Denarie-Soffietti was an autodidactic art student from the outset. After eight years living in Barbados and four children, the artist and her husband (an Italian architect) decided to settle for good and now reside in beautiful Dolphin Coast of South Africa.
Claire Denarie has exhibited on a very international platform. From the Notorious “Sandy Lane” in Barbados with clients such as Pavarotti and Cliff Richards, to the creative streets of Chelsea New York city. Cape Town and Johannesburg have also been the home to many of her works. She has had multiple features written on her in Habitat Magazine as well as having seen her pieces in Top Billing as well as House and Garden. She has exhibited in Canada, Montreal, whereby the artist won first prize in “Best international emerging artist of 2013”. She currently sells and exhibits her works on Saatchi Online art and Artling. Her works are also represented by the wonderful “ All you Can Art” Gallery in Munich.
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Claire has been exhibiting all over the Western Cape. Namely Franschoek, Stellenbosch , Hermanus and Cape Town.The artist was featured in The SA Institute of Artists & Designers : 3rd Edition of The Collector's Guide to Art and Artists in SA this September 2014.Her works have also been featured numerous times in Habitat magazine.
Denarie works have evolved over the years. From depicting quiet moments: serene portraits; a tranquil woodland path; a woman lounging on a chair, to Pink Elephants to Charlie Chaplin’s and Coco Chanels. However, the colours are more intense in reality, while the compositions are so tightly framed that they become dynamic, and the portrait subjects never reveal all to the viewer. Denarie’s figures have secrets, and hint at an interior world within the picture frame. It is her wonderfully palpable painting style and bold colour choice that makes the 2D picture world seem more real than our very own.There is this element of distortion evident in her pieces.
As Art writer Emilie Froment stated in a current article in Living Habitat Magazine, on Denarie’s works, “ There being a substantial or subtle strangeness and ambiguity behind all that is beauty, really reveals more of it, doesn’t it? You might imagine someone of her creative calibre to take themselves super seriously. Thankfully, on the contrary, a curious and self-effacing person stares at you in the face when you meet her. And while a silent principle ties her work together, it strangely isn’t one that tries to portray anything. But it evokes almost everything. So allow us to take you on an off-beat tour of this spontaneous artist’s psychic and spiritual landscapes, cultivated by her blunt but kaleidoscopic attitudes.
As if she were on fire from within, Claire Denarie-Soffietti produces on a prolific level what I can’t resist wanting to call: orchestral oil paint? Nature and the seasons dictate her moods and creativity. The humour and wonder provoked by her collections have captured people’s hearts all over the world this past decade.”
It is evident in the artists’ evolution and subject choices, that her evolution is directly impacted by the various environments and places she has lived in. She is the modern example of how global displacement and the impact of various cultures, visuals and surroundings are a catalyst to the birth of modern contemporary art. Contemporary art is no longer defined by boundaries. Either cultural or geographical.
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When asked whether this sensationalises any particular personal interpretation of the world, and life, this artist always responds:
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“The more I yield to my vision, the more it seems to make sense. My freedom is joy. Even in sadness, love in colour will prevail. Dare loving, dare splashing, never shy from your ‘cobalt blues’, your ‘magentas’ or your ’deep roses’. If you go black, go deep black, all the way and make no apologies. For, right above that, is the sublime. Complementary and opposite can co-exist. Go male, go female, go big, go small, go tree, go home, go water, go big blue or rainy skies, go bee, go tomato, go absurd, go frog, go pig, go old, go child... do it all!
Website: https://www.clairedenarie-soffietti.com
Instagram: @clairedenarieart