Shelagh Cluett was born in Dorset in 1947. She studied at Hornsey School of Art gaining a diploma in art and design in 1968, and continued at Chelsea School of Art and Design, graduating in 1972 with a Higher Diploma in Art.
Remaining in London, in 1978 she took a studio in Wapping. With shows at IKON Gallery in 1979 and then at Nicola Jacobs Gallery and ACME Gallery in 1980, Cluett became established on the British art scene, subsequently showing extensively in the UK and abroad.
By the mid 1980s Cluett’s work was represented in a number of public and private collections and she had become the first woman to hold the position of Principal Lecturer in Sculpture at Chelsea College of Art and Design. She had also begun to travel widely in the Far East and Asia; The research she made into the buildings and artworks that she encountered, informed her own work which in turn became the basis for further exploration.. Her research led to a number of exhibitions including ‘Natural Settings’ at Chelsea Physic Garden, London (1995) and ‘Between the Local and the Global’ at Herbert Read Gallery, Canterbury(1998).
Cluett’s work used a range of media but by the late nineties had become firmly grounded in the digital. Her inclusion in the V&A exhibition ‘Digital Responses’ (2002) evidenced her increasing use of the computer as an artist’s tool. She was a founding member of FADE (Fine Art Digital Environment), and she presented work at a number of ‘digital art’ conferences across the globe including ‘Digital Surface’ at the Tate Gallery (2004) and ‘Beyond the Digital’ at EWHA Women’s College, Seoul (2004).
By 2005 Cluett had become Chair of the Board of Postgraduate Studies at Chelsea. Cluett’s artwork continued to investigate the artistic possibilities of the digital world. She left a project exploring Roman mosaics unfinished when she died in June 2007.
Higher Diploma in Art, Chelsea School of Art
Diploma in Art and Design, First Class Honours, Hornsey College of Art
Study visit to Turkey (ancient site of Dougga) and Rome/Naples (ancient site of Ostia and Pompeii)
Solo exhibition, Hackney Forge Gallery, London
Beyond The Digital
Exhibition and conference, EWHA, South Korea
The Digital Surface in Fine Art Practice
Conference presentation, Tate Britain, London
Digital Responses
Exhibition of Prints and Sculpture, V&A, London
Sculpture in the Park
Group exhibition, Mile End Park, London
Culture
Group exhibition, Culture Gallery, New York
Study visit to India (Khajurajo, Agra, Fatepur Sikri)
Cultural Ties
Group project, Jariwala Westzone Gallery, London
Terrain Vagues/Between the Local and the Global
Group exhibition, Aitre St Maclou, Rouen, France travelling to Herbert Read Gallery, Canterbury
Conference in Caracas
Lecturer for the British Council, Caracas, Venezuela
Study visit to China
Study visit to Cambodia, Siem Reap and Phnom Penh
International Conference of Art Schools
Conference and exhibition, Hiroshima, Japan
Natural Settings
Group exhibition, Chelsea Physic Garden, London
Study visit to Nepal
The Sculpture Exhibition
Group exhibition, Chelsea Arts Club, London
Study visit to Java
Blue Sirens
Solo installation, Gardner Art Centre, Brighton
Study visit to Northern Cambodia
Study visit to Lao and Vietnam (researching at Danang Museum)
Recent Acquisitions
Contemporary Arts Society, London
Study visit to Burma
Metal in Motion
Group exhibition, Brighton Museum, Brighton
8 by 8
Group exhibition, Curwen Gallery, London
National Garden Festival
Group exhibition, Stoke on Trent
Shelagh Cluett
Solo show, Herbert Art Gallery, Coventry
The Last Wapping Show
Group exhibition, New Crane Wharf, London
Shelagh Cluett
Solo exhibition, Nicola Jacobs Gallery, London
Nocturn
Group exhibition, Seigal Contemporary Art, New York
A Private View
Group exhibition, Ecole des Beaux, Nantes, France
Off the Wall
Group exhibition, Spacex Gallery, Exeter
British Artists
Group exhibition, Dienst Beelende Kunst Kruithuis, Den Bosch, Holland
Shelagh Cluett
Solo exhibition, Nicola Jacobs Gallery, London
Paris Biennale
Rue de la Roquette, Paris, France
Wapping
Group exhibition, Musee des Beaux Arts, Tourcoing, France
Eight Women Artists
Group exhibition, Gardner Arts Centre, Sussex
30 ILEA
Group exhibition, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London
Kunst Idag I
Group exhibition, Acme Gallery, London
Wapping Artists 80
Group exhibition, New Crane Wharf, London
The First Exhibition
Group exhibition, Nicola Jacobs Gallery, London
New Sculpture
Group exhibition, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
7+4
Group exhibition, Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh
Platform 72
Group exhibition, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford
Chair of Postgraduate Board of Studies CCAD
Postgraduate Forum Leader CCAD
Director of Post Graduate Fine Art Studies CCAD
Faculty Member at British School at Rome
MA Fine Art Course Director CCAD
Executive Committee Member at Art Accord UK
Principal Lecturer in charge of MA and BA Sculpture CCAD
Young Contemporaries Committee member and Selector
Visual Arts Panel Advisor for the British Arts Council
Principal Lecturer in charge of MA Sculpture CCAD
Visiting tutor and lecturer at a range of art colleges worldwide
