“Emerging first from intuition, then developed along with and through extensive research, much of Clare’s work interrogates the gaze and body politic. Ahead of her solo exhibition at PAVED Arts in Saskatoon in November 2025, I spoke to Clare about her process and impetus to create; her work, which has traced a relief of feminist histories; and her interest in the gendered experience of perception and being perceived.”
Clare Samuel
Clare Samuel is a visual artist originally from Northern Ireland, now living in Toronto, Canada. She holds a BFA from Toronto Metropolitan University and an MFA from Concordia University. Her work focuses on connection and distances between the self and other, as well as notions of social division, borders, and belonging. Spanning mediums such as photography, video, text and installation, her projects are often a dialogue with the idea of portraiture. She has exhibited internationally, most recently at OBORO, Belfast Exposed, and VU Photo. She teaches at York University and Toronto Metropolitan University. Her practice has been supported by Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council. Clare is co-founder and co-director of Feminist Photography Network, a nexus for research on the relationship between feminism and lens-based media.
Featuring the work of Arpita Shah, Clea Christakos-Gee, Jennifer Long, and Margaret Mitchell, this collection of images reflects some of the strange pain and beauty of being raised and moving through this world in bodies designated “female.”