Vera Klute ARHA (born 1981 in Germany) is a contemporary artist based in Ireland since 2001.

Biography

Vera Klute was born in 1981 in

Salzkotten Salzkotten () is a town in the district of Paderborn, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The name Salzkotten (in English, "Salt cottages") is based in the former salt production, which gave Salzkotten its wikt:raison d'être, raison d'être. Salt ...

, Germany. Klute moved to Ireland in 2001 and attended

Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (), more commonly known as IADT Dún Laoghaire or simply IADT is an institute of technology with a focus on art and design located in Deansgrange near Dún Laoghaire, Ireland. It was esta ...

, graduating in 2006. After living and working in Dublin for 20 years, she moved to Co. Kilkenny in 2021. She was elected as Associate Member of the RHA in 2018 und is a full member since 2023.

Work

Vera Klute works in a variety of media, from painting to sculpture, kinetics, drawing and video animation. Fundamentally, she draws, and in a way drawing underpins her use of painting, photography, collage, video, carving, modelling, construction, tapestry, ceramics and even taxidermy.

Exhibitions

Klute has had a number of solo exhibitions: Wexford Arts Centre (2009), Butler Gallery (2011), QSS Gallery (2014), the LAB and

Royal Hibernian Academy The Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts (RHA) is an artist-based and artist-oriented institution in Ireland, founded in Dublin in 1823. Like many other Irish institutions, such as the Royal Irish Academy, the academy retained the word "Royal" after mo ...

(RHA) Ashford (2014), and The Molesworth Gallery (2016, 2020, 2022). She had her first major survey show at the Gallagher Gallery RHA in 2017. She had a 2-person show at Limerick City Gallery in 2021. She has exhibited in numerous group shows including the

National Gallery of Ireland The National Gallery of Ireland () houses the national collection of Irish and European art. It is located in the centre of Dublin with one entrance on Merrion Square, beside Leinster House, and another on Clare Street, Dublin, Clare Street. It ...

, the Butler Gallery, VISUAL Carlow, the

Royal Ulster Academy The Royal Ulster Academy (RUA) has existed in one form or another since 1879. It started life then, as The Belfast Ramblers' Sketching Club drawn from the staff of Marcus Ward & Co who held their first show in Ward's Library on Botanic Avenue in 1 ...

, Tampere Art Museum, Reina Sofia national museum and

Haus der Kulturen der Welt The Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), in English House of World Cultures, in Berlin is Germany's national center for the presentation and discussion of international contemporary arts, with a special focus on non-European cultures and societi ...

Collections

Klute's portrait of Sr Stanislaus Kennedy was added to the National Portrait Collection in the

(NGI) in 2014. She was also commissioned by the National Gallery to create a bust of

Garry Hynes Garry Hynes (born 10 June 1953) is an Irish theatre director. She was the first woman to win the prestigious Tony Award for direction of a play. Biography Hynes was born in Ballaghaderreen, County Roscommon, and educated at St. Louis Convent at ...

. A self-portrait of Klute was selected for inclusion in the National Self-portrait Collection of Ireland, and she won the Hennessy Portrait Prize at the NGI in 2015. Klute was commissioned by the

Royal Irish Academy The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the natural sciences, arts, literature, and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned society and one of its le ...

in 2017 to create a set of four portraits for their ''Women on Walls'' initiative. The portraits were of Françoise Henry, Sheila Tinney,

Phyllis Clinch Phyllis E. M. Clinch (12 September 1901 – 19 October 1984) was an Irish botanist most recognised for her work in the field of plant viruses. Clinch attained her undergraduate degree from University College Dublin in 1923 with a first class h ...

and

Eleanor Knott Eleanor Marie Knott (born Philippa Marie Eleanor Knott; 18 November 1886 – 4 January 1975) was an Irish scholar, academic and lexicographer, as well as one of the first women elected to the Royal Irish Academy. Early life and education Knot ...

. In 2018, she was elected an Associate Member of the RHA. In 2018 Klute's bust of Irish architect and designer

Eileen Gray Eileen Gray (born Kathleen Eileen Moray Smith; 9 August 187831 October 1976) was an Irish interior designer, furniture designer and architect who became a pioneer of the Modern architecture, Modern Movement in architecture. Over her career, s ...

was unveiled in Roquebrune Cap Martin. In January 2019, Klute's

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

Luke Kelly Luke Kelly (17 November 1940 – 30 January 1984) was an Irish singer, folk musician and actor from Dublin, Ireland. Born into a working-class household in Dublin city, Kelly moved to England in his late teens and by his early 20s had become ...

was unveiled on Sheriff Street, Dublin having won the commission for work under a competition established the then Lord Mayor of Dublin, Christy Burke. She was one of four artists that received a commission to create the first female busts for Trinity College Dublin's (TCD) Long Room. Her bust of Rosalind Franklin was unveiled in 2023.

Awards

She won the Hennessy Craig Scholarship in 2015 from the RHA. Klute has been the recipient of the

Arts Council An arts council is a government or private non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the arts; mainly by funding local artists, awarding prizes, and organizing arts events. They often operate at arms-length from the government to prevent pol ...

Bursary Awards in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2019. She has also been awarded the Emerging Visual Artist Award from the Wexford Arts Centre in 2009 and the K+M Evans Award in 2013, the Solomon Fine Art Award for Sculpture in 2020, the Hanley Sustainability Energy Award in 2021 and the Anita Young Bursary in 2022. Vera Klute with Luke Kelly Sculpture

References

External links

*
Molesworth Gallery - Artist Page

RHA Academicians Page

''The Works Presents'' - Interview with John Kelly on the RTE player

''The Two Lukes'' - Documentary about the making of Dublin's two Luke Kelly Sculptures
{{DEFAULTSORT:Klute, Vera 1981 births Living people German women sculptors 21st-century sculptors 21st-century German women artists German contemporary artists Irish contemporary artists Irish women artists Royal Hibernian Academy 21st-century Irish artists 21st-century Irish painters