Clare Milledge's work re-examines contemporary environments with a focus on engagement with ecology through art, in particular through the use of the historical figure of the artist-shaman. Her upbringing in a tent in subtropical rainforests with ecologist parents grounds her practice. Working with fieldwork as her inceptive methodology, she collects, re-organises, transforms and re-presents recordings, information and material gathered on ecological surveys, daily experiences and site visits. Her approach is experimental and collaborative, often combining material derived from sources as diverse as MMORPG chat, Tinder profiles, scientific species lists, garden walks and historical alphabets. Her research output takes the form of public installation environments that variously incorporate glass paintings, textiles, poetry, costumes, sets, gardens, sound and performance. Her idiosyncratic glass-paintings employ the old Byzantine technique of hinterglasmalerei to invoke elemental magic, ranging from alphabetical poem-lists and potent geometric abstractions to figurative plant-animal-rock transformations.

Milledge is an artist and academic. She obtained her Doctor of Philosophy at Sydney College of the Arts, the University of Sydney in 2013, and completed her Honours year at the Statenskunst Akademi in Oslo, maintaining an active engagement with Norwegian contemporary art. She has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout Australia and internationally. She was three times a finalist in the Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship (2007, 2008, 2010) and three times a finalist in the Fauvette Loureiro Travelling Art Scholarship (2016, 2017, 2020). Her work is held in the collections of the National Gallery of Victoria, Buxton Contemporary, Monash University Museum of Art, Ten Cubed and Artbank. In 2022, Milledge presented a major installation Imbás: A Well at the Bottom of the Sea for the 23rd Biennale of Sydney: rīvus.