About Claire Passmore — Contemporary Textile Artist
Claire Passmore is an artist working with textiles, living and working in Mauritius.
Her work continues to develop through an ongoing exploration of the possibilities of textile as a sculptural medium. Working across wall-hung, suspended and three-dimensional forms, she creates pieces that challenge conventional perceptions of fabric and its relationship to space.
Her practice is informed by an extensive career in education, exhibition development and professional engagement within the textile and contemporary art communities.
Transformation is at the heart of this process. I am interested in taking a familiar, pliable material and giving it physical presence, structure and volume, creating forms that can appear unexpectedly solid, rigid or architectural. I am drawn to the tension between fabric’s inherent softness and flexibility and the strength and stability it can acquire through manipulation, changing not only its form, but also the way it is perceived. I am fascinated by the physical challenge of engineering and coaxing fabric to behave against its natural tendencies, finding ways to make a soft, flexible material hold unexpected forms and structures.
This transformation also extends to the textiles themselves. Whenever possible, I work with rescued and discarded fabrics that are considered to have little or no further use. Through the process of deconstruction and re-making, these overlooked materials are transformed, given renewed significance and brought into focus as objects worthy of attention.
My process is slow and exploratory, drawing on traditions of origami, patchwork and quilting. Each piece develops through a dialogue between my hands and the fabric, responding to its particular qualities, limitations and possibilities. Bold colour, surface design, stitch, embroidery and embellishment add further dimension, while light and shadow accentuate the raised, folded and layered surfaces.
The resulting forms occupy a space between textile and sculpture, softness and rigidity, the familiar and the unexpected. They are made to be encountered visually while also engaging a physical awareness of texture, weight and touch, inviting the impulse to reach out and feel.
Claire's award-winning art is exhibited in galleries, museums and public venues in Mauritius, Europe, the United States, Australasia, China and Korea. It is also included in several private, corporate and museum collections. Her work is published in numerous books, magazines and journals, and she is also the author of 'Quilting Originals: Designing your own art quilts'.
Claire is a Juried Artist member of Studio Art Quilt Associates.
SELECTED 2026 / 2027 EXHIBITIONS
2027
Alouda Glacé and Anchored
Schweinfurth Art Centre - Auburn, New York, USA
Pollinating Paradise
Fort Worth Botanic Garden, Fort Worth, Texas, USA
Detroit Zoo — Royal Oak, Michigan, USA
Watching and Waiting
McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture — Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
Hot Stuff
Allen County Museum — Lima, Ohio, USA
Buddy Holly Center - Lubbock, Texas, USA
AI, Tell Me My Fortune
New England Quilt Museum, Lowell, Massachusetts, USA
2026
Deep Dive
Caudan Arts Centre — Port Louis, Mauritius
Pollinating Paradise
International Quilt Festival — Houston, USA
Watching and Waiting
Festival of Quilts — Birmingham, UK
AI, Tell Me My Fortune
Louisiana State University Museum of Art — Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
Hot Stuff
BlackRock Center for the Arts — Germantown, Maryland, USA
Metamorphosis
Lauren Rogers Museum of Art — Laurel, Mississippi, USA
Fly Like the Wind
H-H Americas — Rosemont, Illinois, USA
Deep Dive
SAQA Virtual Exhibition
International Quilt Museum, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA
Ralph James Collection, Swampscott, Massachusetts, USA
Frank Klein Collection, Yorktown, Texas USA
Nous Marchons Ensemble, 1ST Place, 6th Quilt Expo en Beaujolais 2016 , Villefranche-sur-Saône, France
Leadership Nomination Committee, Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) - 2025 & 2026
Secretary to the Board of Directors, Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) - 2023 to 2024
Non-executive Director, Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) - 2021 to 2024
Co-chair of the Global Exhibition Committee, Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) - 2023 to 2024
Curator, Breaking Boundaries, SAQA Exhibition - 2025
Co-Juror, Abstraction: Textural Elements, SAQA Global Exhibition - 2024
Co-Juror, Plurality of Voices, SAQA Virtual Exhibition - 2023
Juror, SAQA Wide Horizons VII, SAQA Europe/Middle East - 2020
Exhibition coordinator, Quilters Guild of the British Isles, Contemporary Quilt - 2014 to 2016
Moderator, FiberArt International Forum - 2022
Guest speaker, 'Quilt Stories' with Lisa Walton - 2021
Guest panelist, Textile Talks 'Conversations with the artists: Opposites attract' - 2020
Guest speaker and Tutor, 5th China Creative Design Competition & International Seminar, Keqiao, China - 2019
Author of Quilting Originals: designing your own art quilts - 2015
PUBLICATIONS →
Art Quilting Studio Magazine: Winter, 2026 →
Eos Magazine: Vol 105, No1. - January 2024 →
Issues in Science and Technology Magazine: Volume 41, No 1, Fall 2024 →
Johns Hopkins Magazine: Volume 75, No 4, Winter 2023 →
Art Quilting Studio Magazine: Autumn 2023 →
Art Quilt Quarterly: Issue 29, October 2022, Cover
Patchwork Professional Magazine: Issue 5, Aug 2022
German Patchwork Guilde Magazine: Spring Edition 2022
Art Quilting Studio Magazine: Vol 13, Issue 2, 2021 →
Art Quilting Studio Magazine: Vol 13, Issue 1, 2021 →
Art Quilt Quarterly: Issues 9,10,11,14,16,21
Les Nouvelles No 14: l’Association France Patchwork, Mar 2020
Practique du Patchwork: No 6, Oct 2019
British Patchwork and Quilting Magazine: Jan & Feb 2019
Quilting Arts Magazine: Issues 66, 69, 72 and 78
Exploring Art Quilts with SAQA, Vol 1 & 2: New Directions, SAQA, 2020 ISBN: 978-0764359989
Art Quilts Unfolding: SAQA, 2018 ISBN: 978-0764356261
OURstory: Human Rights stories in fabric, S.M Jones: Schiffer, 2019 ISBN: 9780764357978
HERstory: A celebration of Strong women: S.M Jones: Schiffer, 2018 ISBN: 9780764354601
Author: Quilting Originals: Designing your own quilts: Claire Passmore, 2015 ISBN 1505890608
ARTIST'S CV →