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Designer
  • Artwork
  • Profile
  • Exhibitions
  • Interview
Charlie Day
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (BA First Class Hons Fine Art, 2008 / 2008)
  • Where My Childhood Was Unspent
    Size (H x W x D): 27.5 x 23 x 1 cm
    Sold
  • The Birthday Party
    Size (H x W x D): 100 x 80 x 5 cm
    Sold
  • Big Hunk O' Love
    Size (H x W x D): 23 x 27.5 x 1 cm
    £480.00
  • It's Time The Tale Were Told
    Size (H x W x D): 100 x 80 x 5 cm
    £1,750.00
  • Ode To Keith
    Size (H x W x D): 40 x 30 x 5 cm
    £700.00
  • A Cliche Waiting To Happen
    Size (H x W x D): 23 x 27.5 x 1 cm
    Sold
  • Psycho Killer
    Size (H x W x D): 23 x 27.5 x 1 cm
    Sold
  • Baby Doll
    Size (H x W x D): 50 x 40 x 5 cm
    £1,000.00
  • If You Have Five Seconds To Spare...
    Size (H x W x D): 100 x 80 x 5 cm
    £1,750.00
  • The Artist's Hand
    Size (H x W x D): 70 x 60 x 5 cm
    £1,250.00
  • Jesus, Do You Hate Me?
    Size (H x W x D): 100 x 75 x 5 cm
    £1,400.00
  • The Entertainer
    Size (H x W x D): 60 x 50 x 5 cm
    £1,250.00

Profile

I begin my work by putting some paint on my support and playing around with it, seeing what it does, and discovering what the painting wants to be about. In a way my paintings become themselves.

My current work is materials based. The consistency of paint, the preparedness of the ground, is as important as any ideas I have. I work from "automatic" drawings or without any preconceived notions at all. Paint becomes things. I spend a lot of studio time working and reworking the colours and any pattern I may be focusing on, and then some notion will work its way into the painting. Some art historical reference or maybe an image inspired by the song I'm listening to will make itself known and jump into the painting.

Exhibitions

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2011    Candy Mountains, Arbeit Gallery, London

2011    Cryptic, The Crypt Gallery, St Pancras, London

2011    Bad Art Salon, Vintage Festival, Royal Festival Hall, London

2011    Contemporary Art Exhibition, Dolphin Square, Pimlico, London

2010    Merged Stories, Real World Gallery, Brick Lane, London

2010    One Day Wonder, Valentine’s Mansion, London

2010    Curator’s Egg, One Church Street Gallery, Great Missenden

2009    Next Art Fair, Art Chicago, Chicago, USA

2009    Open Studios, Studio One Gallery, Wandsworth Arts Festival, London

2009    The Little Show, Studio One Gallery, London

2008    Caravan Show, Empire Gallery, Vyner Street, London

2008    Creative Times, Art Kandy, Brick Lane, London

2008    Dialegs Pictorics, Galeria Miquel Alzueta, Barcelona, Spain

2008    Changing Rooms, 38 Shakespeare Road, London

2008    Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London

2008    The Red Cross Summer Exhibition, Nutshuis, The Hague, The Netherlands

2008    CSM 08 Degree Show, Central Saint Martins, London

2008    Xhibit 08, The Arts Gallery, Davies Street, London

 

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

 

2010    That Difficult Second Album, Studio One Gallery, London

2009    Charlie Day, Transition Shop Space, London

2009    Charlie Day’s Back Catalogue, Studio One Gallery, London

Interview

What is your favourite film of all time?

L'Illusionist

What music are you currently listening to and why?

Portico Quartet are great to listen to while painting, as are the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, and Kate Bush's 50 Words for Snow

Which living artists do you most admire and why?

Alec Cumming is my new favourite. He's captured the essence of the 1950s Newlyn painters and come up with fresh, important work.

Which deceased artist do you most admire and why?

Guston for the courage he showed in the last era of his work.

Roger Hilton for the wonderful figuration in the abstract, or should that be the other way around?

Which exhibition that you have visited made the greatest impact on you and why?

There was a Hockney retrospective in 1988 at the Tate that made me aware that there was someone who said some of the things that I felt, and maybe wanted to say too.

What is the question you get asked most frequently about your work and how do you answer it?

Where does your inspiration come from?

It comes from my life. My loves, my passions, my hates, my regrets, tempered with a little bit of wry humour.

What / who inspired you to be an artist?

Seeing Francis Bacon’s Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion as a child. It blew me away. It still does.

Can you tell us about where you make your art and what if any the significance of this location is?

In my shared studio at Collective Studios in Wandsworth, which I set up and run with my friend Mark Nader. We are in a beautiful Georgian building on the site of the oldest brewery in Britain. It's a wonderful atmosphere in which to make art. I'm also surrounded by some very inspirational friends.

What do you like most about being an artist?

Painting. Getting into the studio and just losing yourself in your messy, wonderful work.

What is your greatest achievement as an artist to date?

Getting a first class honours degree at 37 years old when all I was told at school was that I’d never amount to anything, that was quite good! Travelling to foreign climes to attend private views for exhibitions I have been in. Setting up Collective Studios and giving some fantastic artists their first solo exhibitions in our gallery.

What are your plans for the coming year?

Continuing to work on the upkeep of our studios. I am planning to open another gallery close to our studios in Wandsworth.

I am also moving to the coast this year, and I'm interested in how that will affect my work.