photo by Nate Gowdy


My work is about embodiment—what it feels like and what it means to be in a body.  I am a figurative artist, I work with paint, drawing and performance. My work explores bodies in terms of movement (time and space), individuality, and community. What we are in one moment is different, and the same, from moment to moment. We are multitudes and we are one.

I create my paintings working from life, from photographs, and from memory/feeling. I do not compose with photoshop, rather I select poses and imagery and work from the whole, weaving a painting as I paint it. As it progresses, it develops its own internal logic, telling the me what it needs and freeing me from references. The end result is always a surprise to me.

My performance projects, States of Being Traced and States of Being Live, are a collaborative works made with volunteers. Each model strikes a pose for a minute or two while I make a whole body trace or drawing of him/her/them. The tracings/drawings layer on top of each other, creating an accumulation of figures and a whole, abstract drawing that captures a community’s fleeting form and movement.   

Claire Brandt’s work has been shown in Seattle, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and Washington D.C.. Brandt has been awarded residencies at the Studios at Mass MOCA, the Horse and Art Research Program, and the Jentel Arts Foundation. She received her A.B. from Harvard where she majored in English and American Literature. And she has an MFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute. She was raised in Bellingham & Tacoma, Washington. 

Claire also works at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA as Senior Designer in the Office of University Branding. 

Click to view resume

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