Claire Kiester is a fiber artist, printmaker and public artist from Chapel Hill, NC. She completed her BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and now resides in Charlotte, NC. She uses fiber and crochet techniques to transform and activate interior and exterior space. She aims to reduce her waste as an artist by utilizing recycled materials and eco-friendly production methods. In recent projects, she is exploring pattern and repetition as a visual tool and performative process of making. This work investigates the systems within our society and the residue they leave behind.

Her work has been featured in galleries and events such as The McColl Center, Frank Gallery, The Compound Gallery in Emeryville, CA, and The LeRoy Nieman Center in Chicago, IL. She has created many large-scale public art installations throughout North Carolina. These include her pieces for The Charlotte International Arts Festival, Charlotte SHOUT!, and Uproar Festival of Public Art in Chapel Hill, NC.

Kiester currently works as a teaching artist at Studio 345, an afterschool program for at-risk youth, and as an artist in the greater Charlotte community.

Education

2021                    The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Bachelor of Fine Arts

Residencies/Fellowships

2025                    The Residency, beSOCIAL - Charlotte, NC
2024                    Artist in Residence - McColl Center, Charlotte, NC
2024                    Artist in Residence - Wildacres, Little Switzerland, NC
2023                    Blumenthal Fellow - Blumenthal Performing Arts and the Charlotte International Arts Festival, Charlotte, NC
2022                    Project Protéjé - Charlotte, NC

Public Art

2024                     A Walk Down North Davidson Street, Link NoDa Apartments, Charlotte, NC
2024                    The Sun Beneath the Shade, The ArtsCenter, Carborro, NC
2024                    Sunrise Cones, Arts +, Charlotte, NC
2023                    Luminous Loops, Charlotte International Arts Festival, Charlotte, NC
2023                    Crispy, Uproar Festival of Public Art, Orange County, NC
2023                    !CON, Charlotte SHOUT! - Charlotte, NC
2022                    100 Tiny Things, Charlotte Internation Arts Festival - Charlotte, NC

Solo/Small Group Exhibitions

2023                    Medley, Mooresville Arts Gallery - Mooresville, NC
2023                   Tasty, The Sertoma Art Center - Raleigh, NC

Group Exhibitions

2025                    To Be Consumed, Goodyear Arts, Charlotte, NC
2024                    Good Neighbors, Arts + Community Campus, Charlotte, NC
2024                    AIR Showcase, Mccoll Center, Charlotte, NC
2024                    Texture & Textile, Cain Center for the Arts, Cornelius, NC
2024                    Benefit Art Auction, McColl Center, Charlotte, NC
2024                    All Are Free, Hart Witzen Gallery - Charlotte, NC
2024                    704 Night, The Spectrum Center - Charlotte, NC
2024                    Repetition: The Marks Left Behind, Goodyear Arts - Charlotte, NC
2023                    PULP!, Peel Gallery, Carborro, NC
2023                    Best of the East, 311 Gallery - Raleigh, NC
2023                    Picture Card Series, Milton RhodesCenter for the Arts - Winston Salem, NC
2023                    Scaffold, Artspace - Raleigh, NC
2023                    Unconventional, The Arts Factory - Charlotte, NC
2022                    BRUSHED, Compound Gallery - Emeryville, CA
2022                    FRESH, Artspace - Raleigh, NC
2022                    Raconteuse, Project Protège - Charlotte, NC
2021                    The School of the Art Institute of Chicago Undergrad Exhibition, SAIC Site Galleries - Chicago, IL
2020                    Imprints: Past & Present, Vacant Museum - Virtual
2019                    Art Bash, The LeRoy Nieman Center - Chicago, IL
2016                    Rubbish II Runway, Frank Gallery - Chapel Hill, NC
2014                    Arts Focous, The Arts Center - Carborro, NC

Curatorial Projects

2024                   Manipulating Matrices, Hodges Taylor, Charlotte, NC (Kristin Bickal,  Libby Boyd, Grant Brownlow, Zoë Couvillion, Donald Furst,  Claire Gunville,  Ben Osborne,  Mei Lam So, Ciara Anais Stewart,  Paloma Valencia)
2024                    Repetition: The Marks Left Behind, Goodyear Arts, Charlotte, NC (Kathryn Desplanque, Nicole Driscoll, Molly     English, Sarah Elise Hall, Becca Ibarra, Claire Kiester, Isabella Losskarn, Chieko Murasugi, Vũ Hoàng Khánh Nguyên, Emily Núñez, Meg Stein, Millie Weeks)

Awards/Grants

2024                    ASC Creative Mecklenburg Grant 
2024                    ArtPop Cities Program 2024
2022                    HUG Micro Grant (Helpful Unfettered Gift), Charlotte is Creative

Articles/Publications

2024                    Interview with PBS Charlotte
2023                    Celebrating the Blumenthal Fellows Class of 2023
2023                   Wake Up to the Arts: The Public Art of Uproar!
2023                    Look at These Women Artists... and Their Creative Process!
2021                    Okay Cool Magazine, Issue #4
2021                    Polemical Zine, Issue 15: Memory Vol.1
2020                   Artist Spotlight: Claire Kiester’s Pickle Screen Prints

2020                   Storied Stitches Volume 10

Contact Me

︎ ckiester@nc.rr.com

︎ clairekiester__art