Rachel Clarke combines digital and traditional media in drawings, video and new media installation. Her work intertwines themes of nature and culture, and explores intersections of technology and identity. She is Associate Professor in Electronic Art in the Art Department at California State University, Sacramento. Originally from Shropshire UK, Clarke studied at Winchester School of Art, Winchester, UK (BFA) and Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. IL (MFA). Clarke has exhibited internationally and throughout the United States.
Exhibitions include Somnium Redux, a two-person show at Block Gallery, Sacramento (10/08), Home and Away, Contemporary Video Art, a group show at Jay Jay Gallery, Sacramento (6/08), The Present Moment, a solo exhibition at the Center for Contemporary Art, Sacramento (9/06) A World Away, solo show at Auburn University, Alabama (1/06) Endless Forms: Engaging Evolution a group show at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (2/06) Light in the Dark, a group show at Space Gallery, Portland Maine (1/05) and the IDEAS exhibit at the International Digital Media and Arts Conference, Orlando (3/04). Time-based work includes Avatar (video performance with music by Stephen Blumberg) screened at VAD International Festival of Video and Digital Arts in Girona, Spain (11/05) and INPORT Video Performance Art Festival in Tallinn, Estonia (12/05). In 2003 she created Skirr - a collaboration with composer Stephen Blumberg - for chamber ensemble with digital projection, performed at the Mondavi Center, Davis (11/03), the Festival of New American Music, Sacramento (11/03) Florida State University, Tallahassee (2/05) and California State University, Chico (2/06). It was awarded a jurors' citation at the San Francisco Art Institute 11th Annual International Film Festival (2/04). In 2004 Clarke and Blumberg collaborated on The Gold Kitchen - an interactive sonic/visual installation commissioned by the Crocker Art Museum for the Art Ark. In 2002, Clarke curated a show of national and international artists using new media, entitled Postflesh: Visualizing the Techno-Self at the University Library Gallery, California State State University, Sacramento.
Clarke is currently Vice-President of the CAA New Media Caucus and Editor-in Chief of their online journal, media-N, a national journal of digital and media arts.
In October 2008 she was awarded Artist of the Year by the Arts and Business Council of Sacramento, awarded "For an artist...who ha(s) made a recent significant contribution to the cultural life of the Greater Sacramento Region" |