Creative Spark is delighted to introduce its fourth Artist-in-Residence for 2023, Niamh Clarke.

Niamh Clarke, a recent graduate of Fine Art from Ulster University, is a multi-disciplinary artist whose practice primarily focuses on drawing but also includes written prose, watercolours, and super 8 video. Niamh's work explores the relationship between photography and drawing and reflects an interest in memory and temporality.

Niamh's work contains personal narratives and references that draw inspiration from archival materials, embracing subconsciousness, stream of consciousness, embodied practice, and materiality. Influenced by Virginia Woolf's phenomenological and embodied prose and the conflation of nature and the human condition, landscape and natural form are dominant in Niamh's work.

Recent group exhibitions of Niamh's work include the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize in London and Future/Forward at QSS Gallery in Belfast. Clarke has also had solo exhibitions such as "the transient and the perishing" at Platform Gallery in Belfast.

Niamh grew up surrounded by the Mourne mountains and the Carlingford and Cooley mountains, which have influenced her work and serve as a physical representation of time and memory. Niamh is planning to work towards a body of work based around the landscape of home and hopes to experiment with printmaking techniques to expand her practice and outcomes.

As a co-founder and member of the collaborative drawing group The Drawing Journal, Niamh is an active member of the art community in Belfast. She is currently based at QSS studios in Belfast and is excited to continue developing her skills and techniques in printmaking to add an extra dimension to her practice.