About
gunvilleclaire@gmail.com
Claire Gunville is a mixed-race indigenous visual artist, printmaker, and educator based in Portland, Oregon. By employing used and outdated electronic items, her work focuses on the rippling effects of our technological society, highlighting ecological and interpersonal changes in the wake of technological advancements. Her work has been shown at Hodges Taylor (Charlotte, NC), Elephant Room (Chicago, IL), Carnation Contemporary (Portland, OR) and MRKT (San Francisco, CA). Claire teaches community art classes at Daffodill Studios, among other small workshops in Portland. She received her BFA in Printmaking from Pacific Northwest College of Art.
Technological obsolescence and its resulting effects on the environment are at the forefront of Claire Gunville’s studio practice. As a young millennial, she is well aware of issues surrounding over-extraction of natural resources alongside the growth of the internet age. Our technological advancements not only affect us sociologically, but ecologically as well. Her works are inspired by and made from “dead” electronic items. Planned obsolescence creates a vast amount of waste, and it is very difficult to throw away or recycle electronic items once they go defunct. Gunville’s works try to find a new use for these items, repurposing them to mirror organic flora and fauna. As technological waste starts becoming more enmeshed with the natural world, it leads to the question of what is really natural or organic in our human-made, ever-evolving landscape.
