biography

Victoria Celeste Clarke (b.1983) is an English artist based in Wiltshire, UK. The daughter of painter and sculptor Karen Pilkington-Miksa – she grew up appreciating the wealth of possibilities inherent in the visual art form. A degree in creative writing at Brown University took Victoria down a different artistic path, and a subsequent Master's in Screenwriting led to short film recognition at a number of international film festivals, including the BFI, Berlinale and Sundance.

 

It wasn’t until late 2019 that Victoria first discovered a consuming passion for visual art. A year after the birth of her youngest son, with the first COVID lockdown soon to follow, she began producing works in charcoal, chalk pastel, and eventual oil pastel - which quickly became her medium of choice:

 

"As a 40 year-old professional and mother of two, oil pastels give me the freedom to be impulsive in the space I’ve carved out as my own. I chase the comfort of defined boundaries, while simultaneously destroying them. I labour over oil-smooth geometric shapes, yet derive equal pleasure from scraping them back with a palette knife and using the offcuts in other pieces.  I create scenes of crowds in motion one day, and depict the solitude of an empty street the next. My studio is the gateway to endless adventures.”

 

Anglo-American by both birth and lived experience, Victoria is primarily inspired by the works of English painter L.S Lowry and American painter Edward Hopper, as well as a number of contemporary urban night photographers such as Liam Wong, Mike Will and Barima Edusei. She continues to explore the myriad opportunities for expression the medium provides.

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FOLLOWING BOTH THE  CRITICAL AND COMMERCIAL SUCCESS OF HER DEBUT EXHIBITION AT THE tABERNACLE gALLERY IN lONDON IN JUNE 2023, VICTORIA IS CURRENTLY DEVELOPING A NEW LINE OF WORKS AND ACCEPTING REGULAR COMMISSIONS.  Her pieces now feature in private collections across the UK, europe, Russia, the caribbean and Australia .

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WATCH THIS SPACE FOR MORE INFORMATION!

 

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