Join us for a talk with Artist-in-Residence Cecilia Charlton, where she will discuss her recent work and her experience of being in-residence at West Dean.
London-based American artist Cecilia Charlton creates hand-made embroideries and weavings that engage with the formal histories of abstraction to explore a broad range of themes including the cosmos, memory, and the subconscious. Through manipulations of geometric pattern and colour her artworks achieve an optically challenging and playful approach, questioning the hierarchy between painting and textiles. Themes of feminism, human history, time and transcendence are inherently part of the hand-sewn work, and her investigation into the history of textiles from creative, cultural, and socio-economic perspectives underpins Charlton’s studio practice. Spanning the mediums of textiles, installation, and art in the social sphere, the work results in conversation tending towards both the personal and the universal.
Charlton has exhibited in the UK and internationally; her recent exhibitions include: Memory Garden, Garden Museum, London UK, 2023 (solo); Syzygy, Candida Stevens Gallery, 2023 (solo); Mammoth Loop, SPACE Ilford, 2021 (solo); Parade, curated by Kris Day, Broadway Gallery, UK, 2019; SURGE: The Eastwing Biennial, Courtauld Institute, London, 2018; Rogue Objects, curated by spaceship, University College London, London, 2018. Some awards include the Jerwood Makers Open Award in 2021; Fulbright UK Scholarship in 2015 (shortlisted), and the Ellen Battel Stockel Fellowship as part of the Yale University Norfolk Residency in 2014