Clare Jaque Vasquez

'Take me home' offers a glimpse into my grandmother, one of the strong women who raised me, and the Country that flowed through her soul and veins. My grandmother carried her woven bag across many decades on Country. Her bag becomes a threshold to the beyond, holding the gateway to the surreal, where the rules of existence bend and sway. A portal between worlds, a little vessel that held the weight of the world, containing her maps and childhood memories.  Clare Jaque Vasquez 2024

Telstra General Painting Award
Telstra Emerging Artist Award

Clare Jaque Vasquez is an emerging Indigenous artist from Gomeroi and Kamilaroi Nation. Born to a Gomeroi mother and Welsh father, Clare grew up in Sydney and moved back on Country in community in a small town near Tamworth.

Clare now works from a studio based on Bindal & Wulgurukaba Country in north QLD. Clare’s works capture stories and weaving practices in a raised textural form leveraging natural art tools to apply texture. These tools include different natural brushes, branches and sticks through to palm tree fibres and are specifically used to connect the works with country.

Clare works in layers to embed and protect stories by weaving with paint and uniquely concocted textual mediums which appear to be etched, embedded and scarred onto the canvas. The process of creating the mixed-media, textural works is timely and can take up to 7-12 weeks to complete.

Source: Clare Jaque Vasquez and Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts