Clare Belfrage

Clare Belfrage (born 1966) is an Australian glass artist based in Adelaide, South Australia. Working at both JamFactory and her own home studio along with fellow glass artist and life partner Tim Edwards, she has exhibited her work around the world. She has also given workshops and instruction at numerous events and institutions, and is an adjunct professor at the University of South Australia. She has won the prestigious Tom Malone Prize at the Art Gallery of Western Australia twice.

Early life and education Clare Belfrage was born in Melbourne in 1966.

She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Ceramic Design at Monash University, graduating in 1988. Over its 14 years from 1997 until its closure in 2011, the studio was used by many independent as well as collaborative glassmakers, Tom Moore, Christine Cholewa, Karen Cunningham, and Mandi King. Belfrage practised at the studio until 2008. Her work has been described as "highly distinctive for its sophisticated surface patterns and its delicate hand-polished satin finish". She uses a very slow process, sometimes "drawing directly onto blown glass forms with spaghetti-thin canes of glass called 'stringers' or sometimes integrating painstakingly prefabricated patterned glass patches into the surface of the form". She served as a peer assessor on Arts South Australia's Established and International peer assessment panel from 2004 to 2006, and from 2015 to 2016 on its Visual Arts, Craft and Design panel.

Recognition and awards Belfrage has an international reputation as a leader in her field. 2007 & 2009: Visiting artist, Tacoma Museum of Glass, in Tacoma, Washington, US 2018: South Australian Living Artist (SALA) feature artist, subject of the festival's annual monograph Rhythms of Necessity (by Kay Lawrence and Sera Waters) They share a home studio in the Adelaide suburb of Kensington.

Exhibitions Solo exhibitions Significant solo exhibitions include: 1993: First solo exhibition, Gallery2, JamFactory, Adelaide ) 2003: Clare Belfrage, Recent Works in Glass, Brisbane City Gallery, Brisbane 2018: JamFactory ICON exhibition, Clare Belfrage: A Measure of Time, which toured nationally to 10 venues throughout Australia until 2021

Collections Belfrage's work is held in collections around Australia and internationally, including in:

Australia Art Gallery of South Australia Art Gallery of Western Australia Artbank, NSW Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (Powerhouse Museum), Sydney National Art Glass Collection, Wagga Wagga National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery

Elsewhere Castello Sforzesco Museum, Italy Corning Museum of Glass, New York City, US Ebeltoft Glass Museum, Ebeltoft, Denmark Museo do Vidro, Marinha Grande, Portugal Niijima Glass Museum, Niijima, Japan Tacoma Museum of Glass, US