Claire Boyle is a painter based in Oakland and Chicago. She is currently pursuing her MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Working primarily in large-scale oil paintings, Boyle depicts moments of celebration and social ceremony, teasing out the exuberant, unhinged, and often unsettling spirit of these gatherings. She draws inspiration from medieval image-making, before the discovery of perspectival space, where things often feel at once wrong and charmingly human.
In the paintings, lobsters abound, heads float on miles-long necks, figures gaze past each other with unease, and martinis are always close by. Boyle is interested in flickering between celebration and disquiet, grandiosity and indignity, humor and sadness.
In addition to painting, Boyle has an editorial background, serving as editor of McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern for six years, as well as of numerous fiction and nonfiction books.
IG: @clairevboyle
Education:
2022–2024 — MFA in Painting and Drawing, SAIC, Chicago, IL
2023 — SAIC New York City Study Trip, with Michelle Grabner and Daniel Quiles, NYC, NY
2012–2015 — BA in World Literature and Philosophy, Pitzer College, Claremont, CA
2010 — SAIC Summer Institute Residency Program, Chicago, IL
2009 — Oxbow School Summer Program, Napa, CA
Exhibitions:
2024 — Three Person Show, The Jones Institute, San Francisco, CA (upcoming)
2024 — Battle Scenes, Art City, Chicago, IL (upcoming)
2024 — SAIC Alumni Show, Color Club, Chicago, IL
2024 — They Know Me Here, SITE Gallery, Chicago, IL
2024 — Graduate Exhibition One, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, SAIC Galleries, Chicago, IL
2021 — Sunday Crabbing, ATA Window Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2020 — ArtSpan SF Open Studios, Oakdale Studios, San Francisco, CA
2015 — Contact, Balcony Gallery, Pomona, CA
2015 — Ties, Balcony Gallery, Pomona, CA