Clare Thackway was born on Ngunnawal country, Canberra, and currently lives and works in Paris. 

Known for her forthright and intimate portraits and figurative paintings, the body in Clare Thackway’s paintings becomes a semaphore through which she contemplates moments of human experience, from the emotional to the societal. Informed by ideas in psychology, feminism and the history of painting, she considers how internal and collective experiences affect the ways in which we hold ourselves.The artist works with the fluid associations of cloth and pattern, illuminating the inner threads of our implicit memories and the deep and intricate connectivity between people. Her decisive and scratched back painted marks drag light off the surface of the body, exposing luminous translucent skin. This prudent use of paint gives pulsing life to flesh, revealing the layers that exist subtly underneath. 
 
Clare holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Painting) from the Australian National University, with an exchange to Glasgow School of Art, and graduated from the National Art School Sydney with Honours in Fine Art. 

Thackway has been a finalist in several Australian art awards including the Archibald Prize, Salon des Refusés, Portia Geach Memorial Award, Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, Sir John Sulman Prize, Hufford Hardwood Portrait Prize, Fisher Ghost Art Award, Blake Art Prize, ID Digital Portrait Award, Metro 5 Art Award, Helen Lempriere Travelling Scholarship and was the winner of the Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship. 

She has held artist residencies at the Cranleigh School, Canberra, Good Shephard Lutheran College, Darwin, Splendid Arts Lab, Lismore and Splendid Mentorship at both Fremantle Arts Centre and iVEC University of Western Australia Perth, New England Regional Art Museum, Armidale, and Wik Media, Aurukun.

Since 2007, she has exhibited in commercial and museum exhibitions and her work is held in private collections in Australia, the UK, Germany, and France.