Claire Falkenstein was born in Coos Bay, Oregon in 1908. Still among the ranks of under recognized female artists of the twentieth century, Falkenstein established productive studios, maintained gallery representation, and exhibited extensively in both Europe and the United States during her career. Widely adept at working across mediums, her work spanned scale from monumental to intimate. Her oeuvre is bewilderingly diverse and includes metal (aluminum, copper, bronze, gold, silver, platinum, brass, copper and steel), painting, prints, stained glass windows, wallpaper, wood, a quilt or two, bamboo, obsidian, fused glass, and a significant body of jewelry.

She received her B.A. in Fine Arts in 1930 from the University of California, Berkeley, minoring in anthropology and philosophy. In 1933, Falkenstein a spent summer at Mills College studying sculpture with Alexander Archipenko and was influenced by Bauhaus artist Lázló Moholy-Nagy. Her professional career began with arts education at Anna Head School for private girls where she offered instruction from 1930 to 1937. She subsequently taught at the University of California Extension Program, San Francisco from 1937 to 1943 and the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco (now the San Francisco Art Institute) from 1948 to 1950.

In 1950, Falkenstein moved to Paris, setting up her studio practice and exhibiting at the Gallery Spazio in Rome and the Stadler Gallery in Paris. She returned to the United States 1963, where she was represented by Martha Jackson Gallery in New York and Esther Robles Gallery in Los Angeles. She eventually settled in Venice, California producing high-profile public art works throughout Southern California before her death in 1997.