Born in Watford (1965), Rachel lives in Elgin, Moray. She graduated from Moray School of Art, UHI with a first class BA Hons Fine Art Textiles Degree in 2020. She was selected for the RSA New Contemporaries exhibition (postponed until 2022) and was awarded the GHAT exhibition Prize 2021. She was selected for the New Contemporaries 5 Exhibition in Nairn 2018 and was awarded The Arts Society Highland Annual Prize for Contemporary Art at this exhibition. She has exhibited in Edinburgh, Inverness, Elgin, Nairn and Ahillas, Valencia, Spain.
At the RSA New Contemporaries exhibition, March 2022 she was awarded the Fleming Wyfold Art Foundation award and the prestigious Glenfiddich Artist in Residency 2022.
Her practice includes sound recording, photography, print and cast making.
Rachel McClure's work explores walking and being in the built environment as an artistic practice, considering the seen and unseen, or unnoticed. Walking allows direct contact with our surroundings and Rachel's work uses this multi-sensory embodied experience to consider and map our environment. Recent work at Glenfiddich Distillery explored the whisky making process and included the creation and installation of signs associated with the Glenfiddich Brand, along the route of their whisky tour. This intervention subtly alters the environment and invites the participant to contemplate the surrounding environment and these wider themes.