Victoria claire

Victoria Claire is a Registered Blind, Professional Artist in Contemporary Sculpture, she has been working in the medium of wood for 25 years, her works are as far afield as Australia, Italy, France, Ireland, and Germany as well as all over the UK. She is based in Kent in the UK, is artist in residence at York Street Gallery, Ramsgate and East Gate Gallery, Basildon and has had many exhibitions all over the UK.  Her most renowned exhibitions were the Through The Eyes Of Time collection, this was exhibited in Londons House Of Commons in 2015, as well as the Fly Freedom In Acceptance in America Square, London in 2018
February 2018 saw Victoria excel with the very unique exhibition Blind A Sixth Sense, this exhibition was the first of its kind in this country, six sculpted pieces representing the 5 senses, Sight, Sound, Smell, Taste and Touch and a 6th piece that portrayed a sense of Trust and Freedom, this exhibition was all set in a completely pitch black gallery space, the public were invited to experience a blind situation, interpreting the work purely by using their other senses.  Victoria designed this concept for 3 reasons, to share her personal experience of her journey through sight loss and to express her new found trust and acceptance of her blindness and convey her world of blindness to the public, to encourage people to connect with their other senses to have a much more engaging experience and finally, a message to the visual arts, to open up to curating more accessible art exhibitions for the blind, this is something she feels very passionately about.  As an art lover she feels the blind community are excluded from main stream exhibitions.  These are curated in such a way that the works cannot be touched.  As an exhibiting artist Victoria has always encouraged the public to touch her work, she feels sculpture is a medium that needs to be felt.


This particular exhibition was such a success, seeing 500 visitors coming from far and wide to experience this incredibly different art exhibition.  The public had an overall understanding of the concept and felt the exhibition deserved to be exhibited on a National level.


Victoria has a rare degenerative eye condition called Retinitis Pigmentosa.  Diagnosed at the age of 19, Victoria struggled to come to terms with the fact that she was going to go blind.  After having to leave her university degree in figurative sculpture, which had only 28 places in Europe, she took the time to adjust to this adversity and begun freelance sculpting.  Her work has been successfully commissioned over the past 25 years as she still created her work despite her blindness, adaptivity has helped diversify with her work and The Royal British Sculptors Society have described Victoria’s work as Post Modern Symbolic, this, they feel is due to the more representative style that has been adopted as her sight has deteriorated.


Victoria is a very passionate and inspiring artist that despite her sight loss continues to think out of the box, enjoying creating work that evokes an emotive response with a message of inclusive accessibility for all.


Advocacy Work
she now enjoys working as a Sight Loss Awareness Advocate, through being an Ambassador for Retina UK, an international public speaker and a sight loss mentor. By using this as a platform to reach out to those with sight loss and offer support and inspiration. Sharing her sight loss journey and all of the activities she is involved in. She is one of only 2 female visually impaired  surfers in the UK, she will be competing at a national level this year. Surfing was indeed something she learnt after going blind.  As a musician of 24 years she plays piano, guitar, sings and song writes.
She currently is writing her first book, a memoir of her sight loss journey and self discovery.
With all these involvements she is an inspiration to those who face adversity, proving that despite disability a full and successful life can be found, with an acceptance in ones self, an openness to adaptivity and accessibility, anything can be achieved. Disability is not an impairment to creativity or, indeed anything!




For further information please visit: www.victoriaclairesculpture.com or
www.victoriaclaire-beyondvision.com

Victoria Claire