Biography
Claire Milner is a British artist based in North Yorkshire. She studied her Foundation in Art and Design at Harrogate School of Art, and went on to Coventry Polytechnic, U.K. from which she graduated in Graphic Design and Typography. Before devoting her career to fine art, she worked as an illustrator in London, where she was commissioned by many large corporations and publishing companies. She illustrated portraits of British Chancellors Gordon Brown and Nigel Lawson for major publications, leading to further portrait commissions of politicians, Central European Bankers and company CEOs such as Sir Terry Leahy, Sir Martin Sorrell and Lord Browne. An African trip inspired the painting 'Mother and Child', a mixed media work which was exhibited in Cambridge and acquired by CamFed, an organization which helps fight poverty in Africa by educating and empowering girls, and who subsequently commissioned five similar artworks to form a series. In the early nineties Milner studied under the eminent international mosaic artist Elaine M Goodwin, founder of Tessellated Expression for the 21st Century (TE-21). This was to welcome a new departure for her work, whilst at the same time representing an organic evolution of her early paper collage illustrations.
Claire Milner's artworks are held in a number of private collections, including Blue Marilyn in the collection of Rihanna. The portrait has been widely featured by the global media, it has appeared on The Official Website of The Estate of Marilyn Monroe, and has been showcased by Swarovski. It was included in a special edition of Vogue Paris which was guest edited by Rihanna who featured the work in a profile of her favourite things. Milner's portrait of Amy Winehouse appeared in an exhibition curated by the Amy Winehouse Foundation to mark what would have been the late singer's 30th birthday. The artist's semi abstract artwork representing under sea volcanoes and life in the ocean depths entitled Hydrothermal Vents is in the collection of Professor Iain Stewart, BBC Broadcaster and head of Department of Earth Sciences at Plymouth University. Milner's work has been displayed in museum exhibitions in the UK including: Ripon Cathedral, York Minster, Corinium Museum, Canal Museum, Pontefract Museum, Museum in the Park, as well as installations in Harrods and Whiteley's. Her paintings have been widely featured in the global media (see press page) including the BBC, BLOUIN ARTINFO, Channel News Asia, Elle, Forbes, Huffington Post Arts, The Observer, Save Virunga, The Telegraph, The Times, Vogue Paris and Vogue India. Most recent features include: An in-depth article entitled 'Artist Claire Milner Addresses Climate Change, Mass Extinction and Pollution' in Musings Magazine which interviews thought-leaders and artists in the philanthropic and social impact space, published by Susan Rockefeller and a feature in The Observer alongside pioneering artist Judy Chicago's Create Art for Earth campaign.
Milner's work has raised substantial funds for conservation and environmental organisations and won awards for raising awareness of threats facing keystone species. In December 2017, Milner's painting entitled Ocean Rainforest (Anthropocene Extinction Collection) featuring coral reefs and sea turtles won the Oceanic Global x Alpha'a Artivism Challenge, following which it was exhibited during Art Basel Miami. The competition utilised the visual arts to raise awareness about six critical issues impacting our ocean. The judges included Susan Rockefeller, Dustin Yellin, Aaron Levi Garvey, Doumi Busturia, Alexandre Arrechea and Zaria Forman. Milner's painting entitled Symbiosis (Anthropocene Extinction Collection), a companion piece to Ocean Rainforest went on to be a 2018 1ST ARTSLANT Prize Showcase Winner. Milner's paintings have been described as "metaphors of our time" in examining the effects of humans on each other and on other species. In November 2017 the artist's mixed media painting entitled The Unknown (Holocene Twilight Collection) commissioned by actress and animal activist Virginia McKenna was auctioned in aid of the Born Free Foundation and sold to actress and activist Joanna Lumley. In 2016 Milner's crystal mosaic portrait of an elephant-poaching victim Delicate And Mighty (True Value Collection) was sold to a collector in New York in aid of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi. In 2015 Burning Bright (True Value Collection) created with 32,000 Swarovski crystals representing ten times the number of tigers left in the wild, was exhibited at Hotel Café Royal, auctioned at The Savoy Hotel, London, and sold to an art collector in Germany via Paddle8 in aid of Save Wild Tigers, The Born Free Foundation and The Environmental Investigation Agency.
2021 has so far seen an interview in The Curator's Salon and a six page feature in The FLUX Review. In the Spring, works from Milner's latest Anima Mundi collection were selected for a global virtual exhibition hosted by Create! Magazine curated by Gita Joshi. Logging the Leuser (Anima Mundi Collection) was chosen as a Friday Feature by David Shepherd Wildlife Art, home of Wildlife Artist of the Year. Paintings from the Anthropocene Twilight collection have been selected for three curated collections and a fourth 'Best of April' collection on Saatchi Art by Rebecca Wilson, Chief Curator and VP Art Advisory. Logging the Leuser (Anima Mundi Collection) was chosen in a curated collection for Earth Day 2021 and Paradise Lost (Anima Mundi Collection) was chosen in a further curated collection by Saatchi Art Chief Curator Rebecca Wilson in June 2021. Everything is Connected (Anima Mundi Collection) was chosen as Painting of the Day by Contemporary British Painting - an artist led organisation which explores and promotes current trends in British painting. Milner has been selected to take part in Explorers Against Extinction Invitational Exhibition at the Oxo Gallery, London in November 2021. The primary aims are to raise awareness about the threats facing the world's most iconic species and their habitats while also raising significant funds for nominated projects pivotal in the battle to protect them.
Claire Milner is an artist member of the Gallery Climate Coalition, developing the tools, strategies, and research required to help make a positive change in relation to the carbon footprint of the art industry. She was recently selected as an artist member of the non-profit arts organisation ArtCan.
Nationality