Claire Davenhall
Biography
Claire Davenhall’s artistic journey began on the windswept coastlines of Scotland, where ancient stories were carved into stone and memory lived tangibly within the land. Formally trained in Fine Art Sculpture at Gray’s School of Art, she developed an early fascination with the unseen and the overlooked — the forgotten relics of human presence and the quiet power of natural environments. Further study at the Athens School of Fine Art and North Karelia Polytechnic in Finland deepened her connection to cultural histories, organic forms, and the universality of transformation.
The Illumination, Digital Underwater Photography, 2025
Now based in Australia, Claire has become internationally recognised for her sculptural and photographic works that explore migration, memory, and the delicate interplay between fragility and endurance. As a Master Scuba Diver, she has spent years documenting the underwater landscapes of the Indian Ocean, revealing hidden worlds where shipwrecks become sanctuaries for marine life and history settles into the ocean floor. Her practice is driven by the belief that materials carry memory — whether casting lost soles into sculptural forms to speak of displacement, or using chameleon pigments to echo the shifting colours of deep water.
Portal to the Deep, Digital Underwater Photography, 2025
Claire’s touring exhibition LOST SOLES investigates journeys of migration and resilience through found objects and cast forms, while her award-winning series BLUE – Echoes from the Indian Ocean merges underwater photography with environmental storytelling, reimagining submerged relics as portals through time. Her work has been exhibited across Australia and internationally at Sculpture by the Sea (WA), Swell Sculpture Festival (QLD), Sculpture at Scenic World (NSW), Castaways (WA), Brighton Jetty Sculptures (SA) and more.
Sanctuary, Digital Underwater Photography, 2025
Her accolades include the Shinju Matsuri A View to Asia Prize (2016), Drift Installation Award – Major Prize (2017), International Guest Panellist’s Choice Award at the Walker Gallery UK (2018), a Creative Development Grant from the Department of Culture & the Arts (WA), and the Collectors Art Prize (2025). Her work has been featured in International Contemporary Masters (2021), The Power of Creativity (2022), Voices of Tomorrow (2023), and Legends of Our Time (2025).
Currently completing a Master of Education focused on transformative creative collaboration, Claire continues to expand her practice across sculpture, underwater photography, and immersive installation. Her art invites audiences to slow down, look deeper, and re-imagine the narratives that shape our connection to place, identity, and the natural world.
Claire Davenhall’s work speaks across generations and across oceans, positioning her as a significant and compelling voice in contemporary art.
The Blue Sentile, Digital Underwater Photography, 2025
Artist Statement
My practice explores the thresholds between human experience, memory, and transformation. Whether working underwater or sculpting with found materials, I am drawn to what lies beneath the surface the histories that settle into objects, the stories embedded in landscapes, and the quiet spaces where beauty and loss coexist.
As a Master Scuba Diver, I spend much of my time submerged in the layered poetry of the Indian Ocean. Shipwrecks, corals, and shifting sandbanks become living archives, revealing narratives of migration, resilience, and ecological change. Through underwater photography, I reinterpret these submerged environments as portals where time slows, and memory gathers.
The Crow's Nest, Digital Underwater Photography, 2025
My sculptural work extends this philosophy. I often use discarded or overlooked materials from lost soles to reclaimed metals allowing them to speak of the journeys they have endured. Materials carry memory, and in transforming them, I explore the fragile yet enduring relationship between people and place.
My series BLUE – Echoes from the Indian Ocean reimagines the Shipwreck Coast of Western Australia through immersive photographic works that bridge ecological, emotional, and historical depth. Blue, for me, is a threshold: the colour of breath held, of memory submerged, of transformation unfolding.
Hidden in the Chaos, Digital Underwater Photography, 2025
Through sculpture, photography, and installation, I seek to create spaces where audiences are invited to pause, reflect, and re-enter the world with a renewed sense of connection. My work is both an act of remembrance and an invitation to imagine new narratives where transformation is not only possible, but inevitable.
Between the Pillars of Time, Digital Underwater Photography, 2025
Exhibitions
Recent Solo Exhibitions
2024 Lost Soles at Sea, Maritime Festival, Vancouver Arts Center, WA
2022 Lost Soles: Beyond the Sea, Gallery 25, Edith Cowen University
2021 Connecting Currents, IOTA21, Wanneroo Gallery
2020 Lost Soles: Sent Beyond the Seas, BRAG
2020 Lost Soles, Goldfields Arts Centre, Kalgoorlie, WA Recent Major Group Exhibitions
2025 Minnawarra Art Awards, Armadale, WA
2025 Sculptures on the Scarp, WA
2025 Between the Sheets, Gallery East, WA
2024 Linked IN NYC Women of the World, New York
2024 When I Dream, FORM, Perth Town Hall
2023 Madrid Station Exhibition, Nuevos Ministerio
2022 NOW I OWN, The Old Customs House, WA
2022 Sculpture in the Gallery, Slim Dusty Centre, NSW
2022 Sculpture in the Gaol, Trial Bay, NSW
2022 Art For Peace, International Cultural Management
2022 ALIM22 A Sense of Movement, London, UK
Fires of the Current, Digital Underwater Photography, 2025
Publications
2025 Art Legends of Our Time - Contemporary Art Collector
2024 The Vincent Van Gogh Tribute - Contemporary Art Collector
2023 Art For Peace - Contemporary Art Collector
2023 Voices of Tomorrow - Contemporary Art Curator
2022 The Power of Creativity Art Book - Contemporary Art Collector
2021 International Contemporary Masters Volume 14 - World Wide Art Books
2021 Infinite Sketch UNDER THE SEA ZINE - Brooklyn Art Library, New York
2019 A Visual Encyclopedia, A global Interpretation of Words - Brooklyn Art Library
2017 Artists of Perth - Premium Publishers
Embers in the Depths, Digital Underwater Photography, 2025
Awards
2025 Winner Collectors Art Prize CAC
2025 Winner Masterful Mind Award, CFA
2023 Winner Sculpture in the Gaol, NSW
2023 Artistic Excellence, Artist of the Year, CFA
2022 Certificate of Excellence, CFA
2019 Artist of the Year, HonouThe Illuminationrable Award, CFA
2018 Creative Development Grant, DLGSC
2018 Guest Panellist's Choice Award, UK
2017 WINNER Drift Installation Awards, WA
2016 WINNER Shinju Matsuri ‘View to Asia’, WA
Last Breath, Digital Underwater Photography, 2025
