Auckland-born, US-based artist Claire van der Plas graduated
with a Masters in Fine Arts from Auckland University's Elam School
of Fine Arts in 2004. A committed educator in arts, van der Plas
returned to Elam to teach oil painting before taking up a position
at LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts in Singapore.
Van der Plas' work takes a sardonic and quizzical look at our
interaction with our environment. Her recent works have
concentrated on the denizens - both human and animal - of rural
A&P shows. In this way, van der Plas' work constitutes
an updated reference to early British Pop Art; a vocabulary of
subjects and themes spoken in a distinctly and kitsch-y New Zealand
vernacular.
Van der Plas has participated in group shows through New Zealand
and in Malaysia and Singapore, as well as holding solo exhibitions
at Auckland's Oedipus Rex Gallery. A recent finalist of the Wallace
Trust Art Awards, van der Plas was also selected as a finalist in
the 2006 Trust Waikato Art Awards