Collection Conversations - Claire Curneen & Matt Smith

Join in our exciting series of free art talks at Chippenham Museum, where artists from our Modern and Contemporary Art collection will talk about their work, providing insights into their inspiration and practice. This will be followed by an opportunity to ask questions, with the audience encouraged to join the conversation.

First up, we will be joined by Claire Curneen and Matt Smith, whose work both features in our current exhibition, Subversive Forms: Revolutionary approaches to clay.

Claire Curneen creates figurative sculptures that poignantly reflect on humanity. Universal themes of loss, suffering, sacrifice, and rebirth underpin her work. Hand-built in white porcelain, sometimes with touches of blue or gold, their translucent and fragile qualities offer metaphors through which we can consider the human condition.

Matt Smith is an artist who explores how contemporary practice can address and unpick historic legacies, imbalances, and omissions. In Shepherd, he reworked an antique ceramic figurine with oil paint and Black Parianware interventions, transforming it into a commentary on social history and giving voice to the silenced.

📅 Saturday 21 February
🕒 2.00pm - 3.30pm
🎟️ Free, booking essential

Left Image: Pilgrim, 2020, Claire Curneen, porcelain (image: Dewi Tannatt Lloyd)
Right Image: The Shepherd, 2025, Matt Smith, black parianware, oil paint and antique ceramic

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