Bernard Charnley
The oil paintings in this series explore landscape and seascape traditions through the elemental interactions of air, land, and sea, creating a visual dialogue on change, transition, and crisis. Balancing abstraction and figuration, the work engages with spatial tensions between geometry, surface, and illusion.
Using an intuitive and gestural process, embracing ongoing technical and conceptual development, the paintings presently feature accumulated paint layers, selective use of oil bars, and canvas insertions. Through scraping, scoring, and reworking, an unsettled surface results. Titles drawn from chance phrases further disrupt meaning, inviting multiple interpretations.
An original motivation lies in ongoing collective societal and ecological perceptions. Metaphor and ambiguity troubling the scenic form is the resulting method of approach.
Training:
- Foundation / Maidenhead College of Art
- Dip AD Course / Leeds College of Art
- B.Ed (Hons) London University
- MA Philosophy Open University
Solo:
- Colour Radicals/Rugby Art Gallery and Museum/Sept - Oct 2018
- Signs Of Disorder/Rugby Art Gallery and Museum/Feb 2014
- The Instability of Spaces/AirSpace Dialogue Box/Stoke-on-Trent/August 2009
- A Different Kind of Beauty/Harrington Studios/ Nottingham - April 2009
Group Exhibitions/Events/Networks:
-Featured in Highlights, AxisWeb/ Sept 2020
-Coventry Artspace selected artist of interest/Axis Web membership March 2019
-Coventry Open/Feb 2019
-John Moores Painting Prize/ selected for exhibition July 2016
-Volunteer participant/refurbish pre-Glassbox/Coventry/Jan 2013
-ARC Pioneer volunteer and event participant/The Square and Herbert Art Gallery/Coventry 2013
-Flash mob/Christmas Pop-up event/Coventry Station/The Square, Coventry/2012
-ARC (ACE funded) print commission/Coventry Artspace/2012
-The Serious And The Absurd - working towards comic criticality/Talk on practice/Coventry 2012
-Earlsdon Festival Show/ Coventry/2012
-Airvent/AirSpace Gallery/Stoke-on-Trent/2011
-Slideshow/AirSpace Gallery/Stoke-on-Trent/2011
-Kiss Me Quick/Harbour Arm Gallery/Margate/2011
-Motel Knadski/Trajector Art Fair/Contributing Artist/Brussels/2011
-There Is Beauty In The City/ Ezcurdia_30 Gallery/Gijon, Spain/August 2010
-Common Ground/AirSpace public art exhibition/Hanley Park Stoke-on-Trent/June 2010
-Learning Journeys/Urban Vision/Phase One/Sheffield/Feb 2010
-Learning Journeys/Urban Vision/Phase One/Leicester/2009
-Pecha Kucha Night/FatCat Cafe and Bar/Co-organiser/Performer/Stoke-on-Trent 2009
-Inter?ogation/Walsall New Art Gallery/Sept 2009 Collaborative with artist Brian Holdcroft
-Marina Abramovich/participant /Whitworth Gallery/Manchester/2009
-AntiFreeze/Manchester/2009
-Aftermath/AirSpace studio artists/Leek Institute, Leek/2009
-Preston Pest Project/Castlefield Gallery 2008-Allotments/Harrington Studios, Nottingham 2009
-Salon /D2 Gallery/Leipzig, Germany 2008
-Play/AirSpace, Stoke-on-Trent
-Short Cuts/AirSpace Gallery 2008
-Identity/The Artists Organisation/ Nottingham 2007
-Headtalk/forum/co-creator/Stoke-on-Trent 2007-8