Charlie Russell
BA Fine Art Painting – Camberwell College of Arts, 2023
Reflecting on experiences growing up in London’s social housing has led Charlie Russell to produce works which seek to uncover narratives and events within the home, specifically among the working class.
Experimenting between digital and the traditional medium of painting, her works have been described as ‘glitchy and organic’ in assessing how the two mediums communicate and address contemporary issues together. Russell uses organic material and building supplies to reveal some of London’s living conditions, with textures and shapes communicating concerns of social mobility and the aggressive spread of gentrification within London. Works call into question the availability of opportunities and harmful processes that exist.
The combination of contemporary issues with raw materials creates an immediacy to Russell’s work, stripping artificial and organic structures of their material properties to assess impacts on communities. She converts organic shapes into indeterminate forms as proposed living spaces, analyses of London landscapes and invitations into working-class homes, blurring the lines between stability and chaos, where domesticity meets claustrophobia.
Russell was first selected for our shop by our 2021 panel and again in 2023. Since graduating, she is going on to study MA Painting at Royal College of Art, 2023-2024
Awards and residencies:
The Cass Art Materials Grant 2022
Group exhibition ‘Un/sense' at Christies 2022, London
The Affordable Art Fair, Hampstead, 2022
Finalist - UAL Creative Enterprise Awards, 2021
Instagram: @charlierussellart
"I want my work to bring awareness to class imbalances, specifically in London where my work is focused and where I’ve grown up and the impacts of commodifying and fetishising working class culture."
