Charlotte Osborne is an interdisciplinary artist whose paintings and sculptures meet somewhere in the middle of both media. She graduated with an MA in Fine Art from City & Guilds of London Art School in 2019.
In her paintings, gummy, jungle-like vines stretch across and dribble down the page, biomorphic shapes press and squeeze against each other. In others, trickster like beings that teeter between something human and non-human, or rather they evade such distinctions.
Her artwork explores otherness through a speculative ecological lens. She creates monstrous and hybrid beings that mimic real-life outcasts - whether that be the female, the animal, the plant, the fungi, the microbe - and pays homage to them using parodic strategies. Her research interests lie in interspecies ethics and post-human theories, and the limitless ways in which we interpret the body in relation to science, culture, nature and technology. . The strangeness, tenderness, horror and laughter of ecological awareness is outlined in her practice, that we are inextricably enmeshed with and permeated by the biosphere.
Her paintings come to life in sculptural form with the use of boiled sugar as her primary material. Whether she uses it to create swirling specimen, wearable 'second skins' or to explore speculative lands, boiled sugar reveals itself as a living entity, continuously morphing and engaging our multitude of senses.
2018 - 2019 Masters of Fine Art, City & Guilds of London Art School
2009 - 2013 Bachelors of Fine Art, Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design
Group Exhibitions
The Grass Below the Vaulted Sky, Worlding Project, London, 2022
Art on a Postcard: International Women's Day Auction (online), London, 2022
Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, Nov 11-14th, London, 2021
GIFTS FROM SATO. The Rectory Projects, London. 2021
TERRA NEXUS: Human as Part of Ecology. Proposition Studios, London, 2020-2021. curated by Gabriella Sonabend
Vault Project Street opening, London, 2021
The Potion Room. Subsidiary Projects, London, 2020
Futures 2020. Mall Galleries, London, 2020
Human. Platform 1 Gallery, London, 2019
The Feeling's Mutual: In Collaboration with ArtLicks Weekend. The Rectory Projects, 2019
MA Degree Show. City & Guilds of London Art School, 2019
Pulp (works on paper and small sculpture). The Rectory Projects, London, 2018
Ludo: Also known as Trouble. The Rectory Projects, London, 2018
Agape Banquet. (pasta making workshop and meal), Studio RCA, London. Created and hosted by Bea Bonafini, 2018
Pulp (a sale of works on paper). The Rectory Projects, London, 2018.
Heart for Heart's Sake. Artery Gallery, Prague, 2018
Rare Phenomenon Collective. 45 West 8th Street, New York, curated by Natalie Choy, 2017.
DIALOGUE. Via Arts Prize, Sala Brasil Gallery, Embassy of Brazil, London, 2017.
Flux Exhibition. Chelsea College of Arts, London, 2017.
Warmth of the Earth. Tom’s Etching Studio, London, curated by Charlotte Osborne & Thomas Moore, 2016.
Vanguard Court Summer Studios. Vanguard Court, London, 2015.
Persephone, Queen of the Underworld (Banquet Performance). Cock’N’Bull Gallery, London, hosted by Bea Bonafini & Paola de Ramos, 2014. (performer)
Through the Dark a Light Shall Appear. The Shoreditch Fashion Show, Oval Space, London, 2014.
Degree Show. Central Saint Martins College of Arts & Design, London, 2013.
Elegy. Guest Projects, London, curated by Leo Cohen 2013.
Apposition Happens. Elegia Projects, London, curated by Leo Cohen, 2013.
Byam Shaw Concourse Gallery Show. Byam Shaw, London, 2012.
Workshops & Talks
The Body Tour. FBA Futures 2020, Mall Galleries, London, 2020
Slime Workshop (facilitator) as part of GOSSIP exhibition talks, The Take Courage Gallery, London, 2019
Awards
City & Guilds of London Art School Prize for Outstanding Work in Print
City & Guilds of London Art School Prize for Outstanding Critical Engagement
Residencies
High House Working Residency, Norfolk, Sept - Oct 2022
Hobhouse Studio Residency with Vault Project, London, Feb- April 2021
San Pablo de Khuyana. Artist in Residence Program, Peruvian Amazon. 1st May – 31st May 2018
Dancing in the Wilderness: residential workshop in Butoh with Marie Gabrielle Rotie, Wales, 1st Sept - 7th Sept, 2017
Teaching
Arts and crafts workshops taught for children at Kara Tepe refugee camp, Lesbos Island and Skaramagas Refugee Camp, Athens, Greece, 2017-2022