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Steven Charles

Kedafo

2024 | Acrylic, gold leaf and silver leaf on canvas

“I am interested in creating problems. Painting is a vehicle for me to dedicate myself to something I know won’t work. Abstract painting is the most confusing dilemma I have encountered–it is this confusion that motivates me. I am not a believer. I am in search of holes and gaps. When I start a painting I don’t plan or sketch, I just begin. The beginning could be simple drips, splashes, or paint shot out of a squeeze bottle. Then I work into the initial marks with a process I call targeting. This is where a shape is filled in with a smaller shape leaving

only the outer edge of the first shape showing. This process is repeated until the amount of shape being covered is reduced to the smallest part possible with the selected brush. Each painting begins to generate a logic unique to its own composition. Even though it’s obvious that I am making these paintings, the end results always educate me on what I’m doing. The impetus for this work is my optimism, although what I am optimistic about constantly escapes me”. - Steven Charles

Process

Steven Charles

Steven Charles

Birkenhead, England

Steven Charles (b. in 1967 in Birkenhead, England) received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of North Texas in 1994 and his Master of Fine Arts degree at Temple University in Rome, Italy in 1996. Charles lives and works in Dallas, Texas and is represented by Marcia Wood Gallery in Atlanta, GA. Charles has had numerous solo exhibitions including “You and I Are Living Now,” Cris Worley Gallery, Dallas, TX, “New Paintings,” Ameringer/McEnery/Yohe, New York, NY, “Things that Fell Out of my Pocket,” Associated Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; “Ocean Size,” NOWhere Limited, New York, NY; “I Don’t Know What My Life To Do With,” Stux Gallery, New York, NY; “The Upstairs Room” and “Steven Charles: Thirteen Monsters for Lightning Bolt” at Marlborough Chelsea, New York, NY; and “my life is perfect and I’m always happy,” “crclgogobaroanst,” and “nowhere fast” at Pierogi 2000 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY. Group exhibitions include “Rattle & Hummmmmm,” Odetta Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; “Tiny Art Show,” Associated Gallery, Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY; “Pierogi XX: Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition at Pierogi,” Pierogi Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; “Space is the Place,” BravinLee Programs, New York, NY; “Residue,” Adah Rose Gallery, Kensington, MD; “Brooklyn Boys Go Bowling,” Theodore:Art, Brooklyn, NY; “Cut Up,” Storefront Gallery, Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY; “Piping Down the Valleys Wild,” Stux Gallery, New York, NY; “There Are No Giants Upstairs,” Theodore:Art, Brooklyn, NY; and “Open House: Working in Brooklyn,” Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY. His work has been reviewed in publications such as Art in America, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Vice.” Charles is the recipient of multiple awards including the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Artists’ Fellowship and The Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant.

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Other Artworks

No other artwork by this artist at this time.