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Clare Kambhu’s paintings depict spaces and objects encountered by students
and teachers alike in educational settings. Images of an empty chair, open drawer, or chairs upside
down on a desk, speak to our collective memory of what school culture is like and simultaneously
question how this culture is created through the objects we engage with, or often dismiss, in these
specific settings.
The artist’s familiarity with institutional buildings spans the majority of her young life as both student and
teacher, and undeniably influences her paintings’ formal, and ideological inquiries. Kambhu’s observational
oil renderings of roughed up chairs, used whiteboards, messy textbooks, grade cards, fingerprint smudges,
and yummy oranges waiting for recess, all attempt to visually respond to her much larger train of thought;
how are institutional spaces impacted by those they have been specifically built for?
- Clare Gemima, WHITEHOT MAGAZINE
Clare Kambhu is an artist and educator based in Queens, New York. In her painting practice, the
attention she dedicates to the commonplace surroundings of daily life leads to questions about the
construction of our culture. Her current work focuses on the project of schooling and the ways in
which our idiosyncratic humanness can break through within the constraints of educational
institutions. She taught in New York City public schools for 9 years. Her work has been shown at the
Katonah Museum and the Bronx Museum. Clare is currently an artist in residence at the Children's
Museum of the Arts in New York, NY. Clare received her MFA in painting from Yale School of Art.
She holds a BFA in studio art and an MA in art education from New York University.
I make paintings depicting institutional furniture as well as abstract pieces which allow me to investigate the
internal tensions and contradictions of working within educational institutions. I have taught in New York City
public schools full-time for about ten years, and my paintings are portraits of that system. School chairs
become stand-ins for the student body and students’ bodies.
- Clare Kambhu, BOMB Magazine, March 2023
This exhibition features Clare Kambhu’s work in Building 35’s Main Gallery at GARNER Arts Center
in Garnerville, New York’s GARNER Historic District. The exhibition is an invitation for the
community to contemplate their own experiences of schooling, learning in institutions, and even
how portraiture can be accomplished without the presence of the human figure. The exhibition will
feature special events for school and community groups, as well as opportunities to engage with the
artist and curator.
Clare Kambhu’s work has the ability to immediately put you back in a place where you grew up, where you
excelled, or perhaps even experienced extreme challenges. These paintings, which feature carefully
constructed compositions, bold color, and energetic brushwork, ask the viewer to linger with images of
objects we know so well, but never really examined as we participated in our own education.
- Joe Fusaro, Curator
You’re invited:
School and community groups are invited to schedule a special tour of the exhibition with the artist or
curator. Please call Jesse Heffler at (845) 947-7108 for more information.
__________
CLARE KAMBHU
8:20 – 3:40
Solo Exhibition
Curated by Joe Fusaro
September 7th – October 27th, 2024
Gallery Hours: Fridays, 2-5 PM & Saturdays and Sundays, 1-5 PM
WHERE: The Main Gallery at Building 35, GARNER Arts Center
ADDRESS: GARNER Historic District, 55 West Railroad Avenue, Garnerville, NY 10923
CONTACT: Jesse Heffler, Programs & Operations Director, (845) 947-7108; jesse@garnerartscenter.org |
Joe Fusaro, Curator, (914) 450-1356; joefusaro@optonline.net
For Appointments: (845) 947-7108 / info@garnerartscenter.org
https://garnerartscenter.org/exhibitions
About GARNER Arts Center:
Mission
GARNER Arts Center is an interdisciplinary arts center that advances the creation and presentation of
contemporary, experiential art within a repurposed 19th-century textile mill complex. By providing access to
a wide range of art forms, the organization strives to enrich, educate, and connect diverse audiences.
GARNER Arts Center is committed to igniting and realizing artistic ideas that emerge as a response to
societal, economic, historic and environmental stimuli.
Vision
GARNER Arts Center’s vision is an enduring and inclusive artisan settlement that fosters a thriving arts,
business, and cultural district, and encourages collaboration between makers and the creative sector.
GARNER seeks to be a catalyst for just and sustainable economic growth in its Hudson Valley host
community.
GARNER Arts Center is a tax-deductible 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
GARNER Arts Center – Social Media:
Facebook & Instagram: @garnerartscenter
