Claire Lerner was born and raised in New York, New York. She received her MFA and BFA in Fine Art from the State University of New York at Buffalo; she currently continues her studio practice in Santa Cruz, California. Her work has been collected by a broad range of private and public institutions, including the Monterey Museum of Art, Visa Corporation, Redwood City, CA, Cowell College, UCSC, PMI, Corporate Headquarters, Walnut Creek, CA, Kaiser Permanente, and the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, Monterey, CA.