Kristen McClarty is a specialist printmaker who works from her studio in Kommetjie. Her focus is on relief and monotype printmaking techniques. Since early 2020, she has been working with woodblocks, experimenting with the natural surface and its translation onto paper and other surfaces.

Authentic connection with materials is integral to McClarty’s work and plays an important role in her storytelling.

“When making art I am acutely aware of expressing the provenance of the piece, as I pull together elements of materiality; the natural lie of the wood, the paper or textile often handmade, using skills passed from one generation to the next, the hard and sharp edge of the tools I use to carve away the surface, carrying their own artisanal history. The layering of tone and colour; what is seen and what is unseen, but is nevertheless present, all contribute to the finished artwork.” 

McClarty’s recent woodblocks draw on the idea that lived experience lingers in a place, recorded on the surfaces of rock, droplets of water and suspended particles in air and liquid. A residual energy, reluctant to leave, pooling in the space or mounting up as a palimpsest on the very structure of the environment.

This theme of layered energy in a space is carried into McClarty’s new body of work which she is currently working on to be exhibited in 2024. 

McClarty has exhibited in the United Kingdom at the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair and is represented by Circle Contemporary in Cornwall.  She has exhibited widely in South Africa at galleries such as W17 Gallery, David Krut Projects, Gallery 2, StateoftheART, Daor Contemporary, Kalk Bay Modern, Artvark, and White River Gallery among others, and her work is held in public collections such as The Art Bank of South Africa Acquisitions 2022 and private collections in South Africa and worldwide.