Claire Morgan
Choke
2025
Human Hair, Wasp.
38.5 x 28 x 11.5 cm
Inv: 25S03
(Photo: John McKenzie ©Claire Morgan, Courtesy of Galerie Karsten Greve Paris, Cologne, St. Moritz)

Claire Morgan concludes a 3-month residency at Stiftung Bartels Fondation, Basel, with a solo exhibition, ‘Choke’ (14 – 21 June 2026). Coinciding with Basel’s international art week, this artist-initiated presentation of deeply intimate new work marks a profound evolution in her practice, stepping back from the scale of her signature suspended installations to embrace an intensely personal, visceral vulnerability.

Claire Morgan
Choke (detail)
2025
Human Hair, Wasp.
38.5 x 28 x 11.5 cm
Inv: 25S03 (Photo: John McKenzie ©Clare Morgan, Courtesy of Galerie Karsten Greve Paris, Cologne, St. Moritz)

‘Choke’ dismantles the intellectual narratives we construct to distance ourselves from natural cycles, offering a poignant reminder that humans are animals, in all their frailty and beauty.

“Grief has been an enduring presence in my life. As a child it seemed simple. She who I lost, I grieved. But time only serves to deepen the complexities of familial bonds and carries with it the immovable reality of death. The finality of lost potential holds a primal sadness. 

For decades I have explored the fine line between profound communion and violation that we discover in the fullest experience of connection to Nature. So why does it still come as a shock to me when Nature brings the end of things? Safe inside my home with those I love, I try to remember that this precarious balance that feels like comfort is finite and might change at any moment. I try to remember every detail.” – Claire Morgan

Morgan’s new sculptures render the passage of time physical. Through a painstaking, meditative process, she knots her own hair into rhythmic, smoke-like forms. The rigid geometry of her previous work is purposefully destabilized by the natural curl of the hair, resulting in delicate structures that hover on the brink of collapse. These enclose solitary relics – a wasp, the artist’s baby tooth – ominous tethers to personal trauma that capture the unsettling, yet strangely calming, entanglement of human and animal matter.

Gag, a new limited edition multiple, combines handkerchiefs and chandelier glass found at the flea market in Basel. Hanging in mid air, it references the silhouette of a bedsheet ghost – a literal and figurative suspension of lingering mortality, and the physical and emotional seepage we struggle to hide. It’s an exploration of intimacy, domesticity, and the absurdity of grief.

The sculptural works sit in dialogue with spontaneous, emotionally charged paintings in oil on kozo paper, as translucent as skin. The paintings explore the male body as a site for vulnerability, reflecting our own animality, the finite nature of comfort, and the shock of sudden loss.

Materiality, memory, and the fragmented histories of objects are central to the work. The palette led by materials in their natural states, punctuated only by the distinct reds and blues of the oil paint and the weave of the handkerchiefs.

Running concurrently with Art Basel, ‘Choke’ offers a necessary counterweight to the week’s high-decibel spectacle. Constructed from organic materials, it provides a meditative sanctuary, inviting viewers to pause in contemplation of love and loss, memory and resilience.

Claire Morgan
Socket
2026
Oil, gesso and charcoal on mulberry paper
31 x 98.7 cm
Inv: 26D10
(Photo: Claire Morgan Studio ©Claire Morgan, Courtesy of Galerie Karsten Greve Paris, Cologne, St. Moritz)

Claire Morgan
Aura
2026
Oil and gesso on mulberry paper
24.2 x 18.4 cm
Inv: 26D05
(Photo: Claire Morgan Studio ©Claire Morgan, Courtesy of Galerie Karsten Greve Paris, Cologne, St. Moritz)

Claire Morgan
Fade
2026
Oil and gesso on mulberry paper
24.2 x 18.5 cm
Inv: 26D06
(Photo: Claire Morgan Studio ©Claire Morgan, Courtesy of Galerie Karsten Greve Paris, Cologne, St. Moritz)

Claire Morgan
Pulm
2026
Human Hair, Wasp.
30 x 22.5 x 18 cm
Inv: 26S01
(Photo: Claire Morgan Studio ©Claire Morgan, Courtesy of Galerie Karsten Greve Paris, Cologne, St. Moritz)

Claire Morgan
Reap
2025
Oil and charcoal on mulberry paper
72.7 x 48.6 cm
Inv: 25D06
(Photo: John McKenzie ©Clare Morgan, Courtesy of Galerie Karsten Greve Paris, Cologne, St. Moritz)

Claire Morgan
Expire
2025
Oil and charcoal on mulberry paper
62.1 x 99.5 cm
Inv: 25D23
(Photo: John McKenzie ©Clare Morgan, Courtesy of Galerie Karsten Greve Paris, Cologne, St. Moritz)

Claire Morgan
Curl
2026
Oil and gesso on mulberry paper
36.1 x 48.3 cm
(Photo: Claire Morgan Studio ©Claire Morgan, Courtesy of Galerie Karsten Greve Paris, Cologne, St. Moritz)

Claire Morgan
God
2025
Oil on mulberry paper
48.6 x 72.9 cm
Inv: 25D03
(Photo: John McKenzie ©Clare Morgan, Courtesy of Galerie Karsten Greve Paris, Cologne, St. Moritz)

Claire Morgan
Claw
2025
Oil on mulberry paper
61.8 x 99.6 cm
Inv: 25D05
(Photo: John McKenzie ©Clare Morgan, Courtesy of Galerie Karsten Greve Paris, Cologne, St. Moritz)

Claire Morgan
This hair in my throat
2025
Oil and charcoal on mulberry paper
99.2 x 62 cm
Inv: 25D24
(Photo: John McKenzie ©Clare Morgan, Courtesy of Galerie Karsten Greve Paris, Cologne, St. Moritz)

Claire Morgan
The best thing I could hope for
2025
Oil on folded paper
22 x 152.9 cm
Inv: 25D04
(Photo: John McKenzie ©Clare Morgan, Courtesy of Galerie Karsten Greve Paris, Cologne, St. Moritz)

Claire Morgan
Never let me go
2025
Oil and gesso on folded paper
33 x 307.1 cm
Inv: 25D12
(Photo: John McKenzie ©Clare Morgan, Courtesy of Galerie Karsten Greve Paris, Cologne, St. Moritz)

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Website: www.claire-morgan.co.uk Instagram / Facebook: @ClaireMorganStudio

STIFTUNG BARTELS FONDATION, founded by Rainer Bartels in 2004, awards residencies through an annual nomination process to artists in the areas of fine arts, music, and literature.

CLAIRE MORGAN is a UK-based Irish artist. She was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Sculptors in 2024 and won the Fondation Guerlain Drawing Prize in 2019. Her 20+year exhibition history includes solo shows at Landesgalerie Niederösterreich (AT), Saarlandmuseum (DE), The Horniman Museum (UK), and Frist Art Museum (US). Her works are held in prominent collections including Centre Georges Pompidou, Fondation Guerlain, and MONA.

Morgan is represented by Galerie Karsten Greve: Cologne, Paris, St. Moritz.

Art, Creativity, Installation, Sculpture