Claudia Sarnthein is a German/Austrian artist, living in London and Berlin. She studied Art History at the Universität Wien in Vienna and Design at the Hochschule HAW/College of Art & Design in Hamburg. She worked as a costume/textile designer in Hamburg and Paris for several years, before graduating in Fine Art from the Royal College of Art, London. She works predominately with multi-textured installations that combine painting, drawing, embroidery and ceramics. She draws on her central European heritage – its arts and crafts, folklore, rituals, mysticism, pagan and monotheistic traditions, always in relation to the handmade, the interior or sacred space. Alongside her practice she has published a wide array of artists’ books. She has exhibited internationally with solo and group shows at institutions including Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin; Imperial College, London; Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart; Frappant e.V. Galerie, Hamburg; Drawing Room HU, Budapest; Kunstsalon, Berlin; Warbling, London; Tate Modern Bookshop, London and Jerwood Space, London. She has taught at and collaborated with wide-ranging art institutions and universities across the UK and Germany, most recently the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. She is a Senior Tutor at the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford.
Last updated May 2026