QUAD is delighted that the artist Jen Clare will be undertaking a residency with us from 12 – 18 August 2024. We are happy to continue our programme, QUAD Staff Artist in Residence Scheme, that across the super team here at QUAD we have a lot of amazing creative individuals who work in a range of roles across the organisation. Jen’s Instagram takeover on @quad_ gallery will be between 12 – 16 August 2024.

QUAD is excited to work with them on a week-long residency where Jen Clare is very much present through one-to-one interactions with the QUAD team, taking over and utilising the @quad_ gallery Instagram page as a virtual exhibition space.

Artist Bio
Jen Clare is an illustrator from East Anglia, based in the much hillier Derby. She has a penchant for macabre, unsettling and occasionally humorous traditionally drawn imagery that explores themes of folklore, nostalgia, pop culture and our connection to death through stories, rituals and traditions.

Artist Statement
The term ‘struggling artist’ is thrown around to romanticise the challenges creatives face, usually alluding to a precarious financial state. But artists can struggle with so many other unromantic things; self-doubt, low self-esteem, creative blocks, too much criticism, not enough criticism, etc.

Although it can go against every fibre of our being, sometimes it can be good to go backwards, rather than forging ahead with something that feels wrong and joyless. So that is what I will spend this residency doing; going backwards. I’ll be experimenting with different materials, mediums I haven’t used since I was a child or haven’t ever used, in order to inject life, enjoyment and a sense of humour into the (admittedly slightly morbid) themes I have always found fascinating.