Charlie Calder-Potts

Sep 18

Charlie Calder-Potts is a mixed media artist based in the UK.

If you are interested in Charlie’s work please contact the artist charliecalder-potts@live.co.uk

Artist Statement

Travel and the insight and understanding it provides is essential to Charlie Calder-Pott’s practice. Charlie’s work looks at people; the similarities between people despite differing environments, religions and cultural practices and the cyclical nature of history evident throughout.

Thousands of years of trade have meant that philosophy, religion and language have been in a constant state of flux. One thing, however, remains the same - we are all human and have human nature in common; inquisitive, curious, spiritual beings that constantly question morality and our own existence through the use of the arts.

Charlie’s paintings attempt to condense the history of a place within a contemporary format. The photography element to her work provides a documentary quality that is in many ways a form of reportage; recording an anonymous individual going about their everyday life whether that be commuting on the overground in Hackney or on the streets of Erbil in Iraq. The mixed-media imagery brings many elements of history and context to that place and person. It is a way of observing; revealing forgotten elements of the past alongside an unseen or overlooked present.

Charlie was the youngest ever woman commissioned to be an Official War Artist of the British Army, which she joined in in Afghanistan (2013/14). In 2015, Charlie received a private commission in Iraq which led her to spend a year working on a series based on her time there. Other notable projects include a collaboration with Persian poet Rosa Jamali in Iran sponsored by the British Arts Council (2017) and with icon painter Vladimir Bushkov in Russia (2019). Charlie works with mixed media on aluminium, armoured metal, wood panel and vellum paper, combining photography, painting and drawing.

Selected Exhibitions

Solo Exhibitions: Fosse Gallery, UK (2020); The land I stepped in; tales from Persia, sponsored by the British Arts Council, Fosse Gallery, Stow-on-the-Wold, UK (2018); Book of Kings, Fosse Gallery, Stow-on-the-Wold, UK (2016); Ikon house, Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai, UAE (2013 - 2014); Official War Artist in Afghanistan, sponsored by the British Army (2013); The Crate, Notting Hill, London, UK (2012); Solo stand, Fine Art Commissions at Art London, Royal Hospital, Chelsea, UK (2011); Fine Art Commissions, Bury Street, St James's, London, UK (2011); The Crate, Notting Hill, London, UK (2009)

Group Exhibitions: Group exhibition of shortlisted artists, OXO Tower, London, UK and 20 Rue Saint Claude, Paris, France (2020); Art on the Mind, Proud Central Gallery, London, UK (2019); Columbia Threadneedle Prize, Mall Galleries, London, UK (2018); Art on a Postcard, Long and Ryle Gallery, London, UK (2017); Mappa Mundi Inspirations, Hereford Cathedral, UK (2017); 164 Group Exhibition, Annual Open Exhibition, Royal West of England Academy of Art, Bristol, UK (2016); Group Exhibition, Fosse Gallery, Christmas exhibition, The Square, Stow-on-the-Wold, UK (2013/14); Fair, Art Hamptons New York with Rebecca Hossack Gallery (2012); Summer Exhibition at the Belgravia Gallery, London, UK (2012); Spring Exhibition, Fosse Gallery, Stow-on-the-Wold, UK (2012); The Affordable Art Fair, New York, USA (2012); Christmas Exhibition, Fosse Gallery, Stow-on-the-Wold, UK (2011); AAF Amsterdam with HUS Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2011); Fair, ST-ART, Strasbourg, France (2011); Summer Exhibition of Gallery Artists, Fosse Gallery, Stow-on-the-Wold, UK (2011); 'Rams, lambs, tups and ewes, Fosse Gallery, Stow-on-the-Wold, UK (2011); Christmas Exhibition at the Fosse Gallery, Stow-on-the-Wold, UK (2010); Group Exhibition, Fine Art Commissions Ltd, St James, London, UK (2010); Fair, Chelsea Art Fair with Fine Art Commissions Ltd, London, UK (2010); Artist in Residence, Pump Court Tax Chambers, London, UK (2010); Permanent Exhibition Trinity House Fine Art, Broadway, London, UK (2009/10); Fair, Untitled Artists Fair, Chelsea Town Hall, London, UK (2009); Group Exhibition, Little Buckland Gallery, Worcestershire, UK (2009); Thirlestaine Long Gallery, Cheltenham, UK (2008); Little Buckland Gallery, Worcestershire, UK (2008); Riley Contemporary Art, Gloucestershire, UK (2008)