New Collection: Gardeners of Eden

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” — EINSTEIN         

GARDENERS OF EDEN

Mixed media on canvas. 100 x 200 cm. 2022

Titled after the documentary film of the same name, the principle painting in this new collection appears benign, even joyful yet posits an unfolding ecological disaster with potentially far-reaching consequences. Not least of which is the loss of additional creatures such as zebras and impalas, dependant for their survival on the habitat-clearing work of elephants who are known as “The Gardeners of Eden”.

Claire Milner has exhibited widely, including on the world’s biggest stage in the Blue Zone of the UN Climate Change Conference, COP26. Her work has raised substantial funds for conservation and environmental organisations and won awards for raising awareness of threats facing keystone species. She has had many notable commissions, most famously a large-scale portrait of Marilyn Monroe for the global icon, Rihanna, who featured her work in a special edition of Vogue Paris in a profile of her favourite things. Milner’s paintings have been widely featured in the international media including the BBC, BLOUIN ARTINFO, Channel News Asia, Elle, Forbes, Huffington Post Arts, The Observer, Save Virunga, The Telegraph, The Times, Vogue Paris and Vogue India. An in-depth article entitled ‘Artist Claire Milner Addresses Climate Change, Mass Extinction and Pollution’ featured in Musings Magazine which interviews thought-leaders and artists in the philanthropic and social impact space, published by Susan Rockefeller.

INVESTIGATE . TRANSLATE . CREATE

Claire Milner works in collections which collate art, science, nature and which simultaneously represent her own identity and values. Environmental references such as climate change and mass extinction have been the central focus of her image making for more than two decades and these issues have been instrumental in shaping her entire life. Her works highlight the human connection to the natural world and the impact of human encroachment upon critical ecosystems and species. She uses imagery from extensive research documenting the latest environmental news, combined with art historical tropes and themes from classical literature and mythology. These references are interwoven in the final works to form a blend of topical and historical narratives in a coalescence she describes as “Investigate. Translate. Create.” Milner’s latest paintings are at the intersection of abstraction and figuration and explore ideas surrounding the revealed, the hidden and the disappeared. In a world full of immediate image consumption, this work by contrast, has many layers and eludes immediate digestion, instead, inviting the act of slow-looking. It condenses ideas and memories, making references to a way of thinking, rather than depicting precise representational images. Signifying both chaos and order, densely layered compositions consist of many levels of meanings and discoveries to be made with subsequent viewings. On moving closer, figuration appears to withdraw, leaving abstract shapes in a simultaneous left and right brain activation. The portrayal of animals’ interchanges between metaphoric and literal and continues a wide-ranging history of animal images in art. The impact of humanity is always implicit, even when the human figure is absent or plays a minor role in the composition. Milner has taken extensive research trips to Africa, South America, Asia and Australia for commissioned and personal bodies of work, and these travels continue to inform her current collections. Inspired by her love of Africa, her paintings accentuate the uneasy juxtaposition of abundance and loss and contrast commercial values with environmental ideals as determinants of worth. Art does not exist in a vacuum and Milner believes that now more than ever an artist’s role is to hold a mirror up to the issues of our time. The main focus of her content is universal: life and death. In a conversation with art history, current topical issues and the viewer, Milner’s paintings give equal value to creating work that is both aesthetically and environmentally significant.