CLAUDIA COMTE

b. 1983, Lausanne, Switzerland

Lives and Works in Grancy, Switzerland and in Berlin, Germany.

 

 

Claudia Comte (b. 1983 in Grancy, Switzerland) is an artist based in the countryside outside of Basel, Switzerland. She studied at the Ecole Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne, ECAL (2004-2007) followed by a Masters of Art in Science of Education at Haute Ecole Pédagogique, Visual Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland (2008-2010).

 

Comte works between media, often combining sculptures or installations with wall paintings to create environments where works relate to each other with a visual rhythm that is both methodical and playful. Her work is defined by her interest in the memory of materials and by a careful observation of how the hand relates to different technologies. In the last years, she has been invested in understanding the relationships between different forms of life. Materials do not only have a memory, but they also possess knowledge about the environments they belong to. Marble entails the ocean, and life underwater is crystallized and it would be inaccurate to see this material as hard since it is liquid at its core. Wood “remembers” the climate conditions of the planet and the forest that embodies the thousands of symbiotic processes that allow air, energy, breathing, growing, food, and shelter. Claudia Comte’s work opens our view to the environment, oxygen, and the way the conditions of our planet modify the materials – in every pattern and object.

 

Claudia Comte has shown her work in solo and group exhibitions including; Ascending the Ashes: A Tale of Renewal, K&L Museum, Seoul, KR, Claudia Comte: There Was No Up, There Was No Down, There Was No Side To Side, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, CN, ΕΜΣΤ National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens, Special Commission Wallpainting, GR( 2024), From Where We Rise, Fundación Casa Wabi, Puerto Escondido (2023), Five Marble Leaves, Central Wharf Park, Boston (2022), Geometric Opulence, Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich (2022), The Dreamers, 58th October Salon - Belgrade Biennale (2021), After Nature, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid (2021), The Sea of Darkness, Kunstraum Dornbirn (2020); How to Grow and Still Stay the Same Shape, Castello di Rivoli (2019), I have Grown Taller from Standing with Trees, Copenhagen Contemporary (2019), Zigzags and Diagonals, MOCA Cleveland (2018), Swiss Performance Now, Kunsthalle Basel (2018), KölnSkulpture #9, Köln (2017), La Ligne Claire, Basement Roma (2017), NOW I WON, Messeplatz, Art Basel (2017), 10 Rooms, 40 Walls, 1059 m2, Kunstmuseum Luzern (2017), Desert X, Palm Springs, Catch The Tail By The Tiger, The Language of Things, with the Public Art Fund, New York (2016), Easy Heavy III, Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich (2014), If I were a rabbit, where would I keep my gloves?, BolteLang (2013) and Elevation 1049, Gstaad (2013).

 

Comte was awarded the Swiss Art Award in 2014 and with the Kiefer Hablitzel Award in 2012. She got supported by the UBS Foundation for Contemporary Art (Switzerland) in 2012 and won the Kulturförderpreis by Alexander Clavel Stiftung (Riehen, Switzerland) in 2018.