Clare’s practice is largely occupied by an interest in how clichéd and sentimental images and symbols can be shaped through an experimental painting practice. By playing with different modes of mark making, compositional relationships, and narrative configurations, she aims to revitalise expressively exhausted subjects. Clare’s work encourages viewers to both feel, and recognise the devices inspiring (or manipulating) their feeling.

Clare is an artist based in Narrm/Melbourne. She completed a Bachelor of Fine Art at Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne (2014) and has since graduated from the Master of Fine Art program at Monash University, Melbourne (2021), where she wrote a thesis titled Three Routes Through Painting the Cliché. Recent solo and duo exhibitions include Exhaust, or, Dagmar Bosma (NL) & Clare Longley, Flippy’s, Melbourne (2023); Garden series with boundaries, ReadingRoom (2020); Watch and thee, absent another, Bus Projects, Melbourne (2019); Adult Lullabies, Daine Singer, Melbourne (2017); and Thanks for Having Me, Blindside Gallery, Melbourne (2017). Curatorial projects include Smoke Screens, LON Gallery, Melbourne (2018); Massage Therapy, KINGS Artist-Run, Melbourne (2017); and We Make Memories, Seventh Gallery, Melbourne (2017). Selected group exhibitions include Potential Space, Kennard’s Self Storage Facility, Sydney (2019); MADA Now, Monash Art, Design & Architecture Gallery, Melbourne (2018); and The Wizard of Oz: An Updated Classic, Secret Project Robot, Brooklyn, NY (2017). Clare recently undertook a residency at Fremantle Art Centre, Fremantle (2022) and is working toward a duo exhibition with David Egan at NAP Contemporary, Mildura (2023).