Clare Milledge lives and works in Warrang/Sydney Cove on unceded Bidjigal and Gadigal land. Distinguished for her hinterglasmalerei paintings—a reverse-glass technique rooted in Byzantine traditions—Milledge engages abstraction, fragmentation, and encryption, creating text-based, geometric and figurative paintings and installations. Using adapted fieldwork methodologies, she draws upon and reimagines contemporary environments, cultivating a polymorphic visual language that unsettles conventional structures of knowledge within a shared material lexicon. She holds a PhD from SCA, the University of Sydney (2013), and completed exchange scholarships during her undergraduate studies at the Statenskunst Akademi, Oslo (2006) and during her post-graduate studies at Universität der Künste, Berlin (2008).
Significant exhibitions include Complex notophyll vine forest: ground-proof, Lismore Regional Gallery (2025), From the other side, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2023); Living Patterns: Contemporary Australian Abstraction, Queensland Art Gallery Of Modern Art, Brisbane (2023); Maluw Adhil Urngu Padanu Mamuy Moesik, IMA, Meanjin/Brisbane (2023); rīvus, Biennale of Sydney (2022); NGV Triennial, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2020); Strigiformes: Binocular, Binaural, Museet for Samtidskunst, Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo, NO (2017); What Remains, Fotogalleriet, Oslo, NO (2017).
Her work is held in significant collections including the NGV, Buxton Contemporary, Monash University Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne, and Artbank. She has undertaken residencies at Carriageworks, Sydney (2021), Artspace, Sydney (2015) and Cove Park, Scotland (2025).
complex notophyll vine forest: ground-proof
2025
Lismore Regional Gallery
installation view
Photo: Andy Macpherson
S: gel radiance
2023
oil on toughened glass, reclaimed timber frame (Agathis robusta)
130.0 × 130.0 cm
complex notophyll vine forest: ground-proof
2025
Lismore Regional Gallery
installation view
Photo: Andy Macpherson
Still Life
2022
Buxton Contemporary, Melbourne
installation view
Photo: Christian Capurro
The Jayapura Room
2015
oil on tempered glass, reclaimed plastic garden sheeting, reclaimed timber frame (Eucalyptus oreade)
133.0 × 133.0 framed
the vanishing lake
2025
oil on toughened glass, bronze, aluminium
diptych, each panel 72.0 × 72.0cm; overall 70.0 × 144.0 cm
complex notophyll vine forest: ground-proof
2025
Lismore Regional Gallery
installation view
Photo: Andy Macpherson
War Memorial (VIC)
2014/2022
oil on tempered glass, acrylic on hessian, aluminum silver leaf, reclaimed timber frame (Eucalyptus oreades)
94.0 × 74.0cm framed
Uamha Breacáin the cave of Breacán
2024
oil on toughened glass, bronze close readers
70.0 × 70.0cm framed
I am a wonder: among flowers
2018
oil on the reverse of recycled tempered glass, bronze close-readers, steel
77.7 × 51.5 × 4.0 cm
Who Drank the Eggs
2020
oil on stained glass, bronze dimensions variable, 6 glass panels, 1 bronze branch, 6 nets
appro × 160.0 × 150.0 × 150.0cm
Horse Blankek
2014/2022
oil on toughened glass, dyed hessian, reclaimed timber frame (Eucalyptus oreades)
100.0 × 150.0 cm
imbás: a well at the bottom of the sea
2022
23rd Biennale of Sydney: rīvus, Warrang/Sydney
installation view
Photo: Jessica Maurer
imbás: a well at the bottom of the sea
2022
23rd Biennale of Sydney: rīvus, Warrang/Sydney
installation view
Photo: Jessica Maurer
Sruth
2021/23
oil on toughened glass, reclaimed timber frame (Eucalyptus oreades)
diptych, each panel 117.0 × 117.0 cm
Badb: bro im glitched
2023
oil on toughened glass, reclaimed timber frame (Agathis robusta)
120.0 × 120.0 cm
Sacks Of Wind: A Rock Harder Than A Rock
2018
NGV Triennial
installation view
Photo Sean Fennessy
I am a wind: on a deep lake
2018
oil on the reverse of recycled tempered glass, bronze close-readers, steel
87.0 × 71.0 × 6.0 cm
I am a spear: that roars for blood, I am a salmon in a pool
2019
recycled textiles, paint rags, wood
190.0 × 175.0 × 7.0 cm
I am a breaker: threatening doom
2018
oil on the reverse of tempered glass, bronze close-readers, steel
90.0 × 90.0 × 4.0 cm
imbás: a well at the bottom of the sea
2022
23rd Biennale of Sydney: rīvus, Warrang/Sydney
installation view
Photo: Jessica Maurer
lfp mottled and green: looking for a cleric sib
2023
installation view
Photo: Jessica Maurer
Elatha and Ériu
2021/2023
oil on toughened glass, reclaimed timber frame (Eucalyptus oreades)
diptych, each panel 117.0 × 117.0 cm; overall 117.0 × 234.0
Remedial Works
2017
Perth Institute of Contemporary Art
installation view
Photo: Dan Bourke
Atlas Constellation
2016/2022
oil on 4mm tempered glass, reclaimed timber frame (Eucalyptus oreades)
diptych, each panel 130.0 × 130.0 cm; overall 130.0 × 260.0 c
Glaic na feannoigge the hollow of the grey crow
2024
oil on toughened glass, reclaimed timber frame (Eucalyptus marginata)
100.0 × 100.0 cm
bramble-hound, heron-wound: two stone wolves
2024
Installation view
Naarm / Melbourne
9 Ellis Street
South Yarra, Victoria 3141
Australia
+61 3 9826 2470
Gadigal / Sydney
91 Campbell Street
Surry Hills, New South Wales 2010
Australia
+61 2 9055 4688
