Biography
Ruth Claxton (b. Ipswich, Suffolk, UK 1971) studied art at Nottingham Trent University (1990-93) and sculpture at the Royal College of Art (2000-02) before settling in Birmingham, where she is associate director of Eastside Projects, a public gallery in Birmingham which is being imagined and organised by artists. She is best known for her architectural installations of found objects, and painstaking augmentations of found postcards, a selection of which were presented for the first time in Scotland at Ingleby Gallery in 2008. Taking postcards of historical paintings, Claxton explores the complex nature of ‘the gaze’ by manipulating the top layer of the card and slicing into its surface to create entirely new artworks which, with their intricate patterns, simultaneously entice and frustrate the viewer. Her touring exhibition Lands End explored another area of her practice with a site-specific installation of found ceramic figurines arranged atop myriad mirrored pedestals, their heads completely disappeared beneath dazzling clouds of plasticine and glitter. The exhibition opened at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham in 2008 and toured to: Oriel Davies Gallery, Spike Island, Bristol and Grundy Gallery, Blackpool, the latter of whom commissioned with the Contemporary Art Society, Synthetic Worlds (Two Women; Isostasy) (2012)
