Claire Soffietti, Cape Town
Member Since June 2014
Artist Statement Biography
Born and raised in Versailles, Claire Denarie-Soffietti was an autodidactic art student from the outset. After eight years in Barbados and four children the artist and her husband (an Italian architect) decided to settle for good and now reside in beautiful Cape Town South Africa.
Claire Denarie has exhibited on a very international platform. From the Notorious “Sandy Lane” in Barbados with clients such as Pavarotti and Cliff Richards, to the creative streets of Chelsea New York city at Agora art gallery. Cape Town and Johannesburg have also been the home to many of her works. She was featured in Habitat magazine, as well as having seen her pieces in Top Billing as well as House and Garden. She has most recently exhibited in Canada, Montreal, whereby the artist won first prize in “ Best international emerging artist of 2013”. A wonderful accomplishment for the artist.
Denarie depicts quiet moments: serene portraits; a tranquil woodland path; a woman lounging on a chair. From Pink Elephants to Charlie Chaplin’s and Coco Chanels. However, the colours are more intense than in reality, while the compositions are so tightly framed that they become kinetic, and the portrait subjects never reveal all to the viewer. Soffietti’ figures have secrets, and hint at an interior world within the picture frame. It is her wonderfully tactile, gestural painting style and bold colour choice that makes the picture world seem more real than our own.
There is this element of distortion evident in her subjects. When asked whether this dramatizes any particular personal interpretation of the world, and life, this artist responds:
‘Nothing pleases me more than the grotesque of human nature! I don’t do pretty and I become colour-blind when it comes to pastels and sober colours’. Nature, for Denarie, is mysterious and perfect and ought to remain untouched in its finished state. She allows herself to marvel, not to comprehend it when it comes to the eye. The artist admits: ‘I paint to translate the incongruities of my mind, and stop when it fails to entertain me’.
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