Charlotte Saint Cullen
Charlotte Saint Cullen’s practice is a love letter and act of resistance. Working with metal, glass, stone, flowers and found materials, Cullen’s practice speaks to loss, love and faith in the unknown. Drawing on the give and take of working with primarily hard materials, they apply a range of processes including plasma cutting, welding, soldering and carving. The result are sculptures which hold marks as if scars from the action of their making. This contrasts with reparative processes and found materials embedded in the making, including weaving, flower arranging and ornamentation, which reprioritise careful attentiveness. Enacting sketches or drafts of a composition, flat sheets of mild steel with unfinished edges are cut into, intersect, and hold new materials. These crafted objects hold their story through a vulnerable material memory, appearing still in process.
Cullen’s simple forms value labour and the material memory of the labour they enact, centring healing within the legacies which make such acts necessary – the pain of treatment which ravishes the body almost as much as the illness, caring for a loved one with addiction, rebuilding community in the aftermath of destruction, the longing of the displaced, the agony of grief.
Lived Experience
Charlotte Saint Cullen’s practice is a love letter and act of resistance, they work across metal, glass, stone, flower arranging and found materials. Cullen was Axis Fellow 2023-24, and Yorkshire Sculpture International Associate 2021-22. Cullen has completed public commissions, most recently for Leeds2023, and undertaken residencies, notably YYT Museum, Shanghai, China (2019). Recent solo exhibitions include Blank_ Leeds (2022), Patriot Hall, Edinburgh (2021), Leeds Central Library (2021), and group exhibitions Threshold, Leeds (2025), Lacy Road, New York (2025), Hypha Gallery, London (2024-25), Gloam, Sheffield (2024), Leeds Art Gallery (2023). Cullen has received funding from Arts Council England, Henry Moore Foundation and AN amongst others.
Cullen completed their Practice-led PhD with the Centre for Sculptural Thinking at the University of Huddersfield in 2019, funded by Huddersfield University Vice Chancellors studentship and supported by Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Cullen is Lecturer at York St John University, York where they established and ran Vessel gallery, and a committee member of serf studios and project space, Leeds. Upcoming projects include Studies for a Shield After Battle (cumdach), book of collected essays to be published by Village books with a forward by Prof. Jo Applin (Courtauld), solo exhibition at Village, Manchester, Necromancy conference at Gravensteen prison, Leidan University, Netherlands.
S O L O & D U O E X H I B I T I O N S
2026. Upcoming: Studies for a Shield After Battle (Cumdach), Village, Manchester
2025-26. A Mean Thing, North Bar, Leeds
2025. Sharp Edges, [with Bijan Amini-Alavijeh, Ian Jackson] Threshold Sculpture, Leeds
2022. The Voice Falters, serf, Leeds supported by Leeds Inspired
2022. I give, Blank_, Leeds
2021. In the Belly, Vessel, York St John, York
2021. Study for a Shield After Battle, Patriot Hall, Wasps Studios, Edinburgh, Scotland
2021. I am the merry-go-round horse dragging up the earth beneath me, Leeds Central Library
2020. (being with) breaking ground, serf, Leeds
2019. No Matter How Strong, [with Nisa Khan], Artcore, Derby
2017. Into the Woods, Set the Controls For The Heart Of The Sun, Leeds
2016-17. Gloria & her Mother, Curators Choice, Leeds College of Art, Leeds
2016. Please, Be Gentle., Assembly House, Leeds
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A W A R D S & F U N D I N G
2025. Qualitive Research Funding, York St John University
2024. Qualitive Research Funding, York St John University
2023-24. Axis Fellowship
2023. Henry Moore Foundation Grant
2023. Leeds Inspired small grant
2023. ACE Developing Your Creative Practice grant for She’s the Arrow
2023. AN Artist Bursary
2023: Curatorspace Artist Bursary
2022. Yorkshire Sculpture International Sculpture Network Associate Artist
2021. Leeds Inspired small grant
2021. Qualitive Research Funding, York St John University
2020. Sunny Bank Mills Ones to Watch
2020. Qualitive Research Funding, York St John University
2016. Selected as UK Young Artist cohort with UK New Artists, UK Young Artists Festival, Derby
2016. Research & Development Funding, The University of Huddersfield
2015. Research & Development Funding, The University of Huddersfield
2013. Vice Chancellors Studentship, The University of Huddersfield
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C O M M I S S I O N S
2023. Any Work That wanted Doing, Leeds 2023 commission for Armley Mills Industrial Museum
2022. PANIC! Commission, supported by The Tetley, Leeds and online, screened at The Arthouse Wakefield
2018. Poor Image Projects, Commission for Mathew Parkin, presented at University of Leeds
2016. Yorkshire Year of the Textiles commission, The Royal Pump Room, Harrogate, for University of Leeds, supported by Arts Council England
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R E S I D E N C I E S
2024. Self-directed Acme residency, London, supported by ACE DYCP
2023. The Field, The Field, Artist in residence, Derbyshire
2021. LUTRA, print workshop residency, Leeds
2021. Artist in residence, Leeds Central Library, supported by Leeds Inspired
2020. Jakwaa Arts Centre, supported by UKNA, digital residency exchange, Mombasa Kenya
2019. Artshake19: International Gathering, UKNA, residency as artist mentor, Yiyuan Tang Museum, Shanghai, China
2019. No Matter How Strong, Artcore, Derby
2019. UK New Artists Weekender Residency, Skegness with SO Festival
2016. Pankhurst in the Park, Residency as a member of BUNNY collective, Manchester
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P U B L I S H E D W O R K & S E L E C T P R E S E N T A T I O N S
2026. Upcoming: Studies for a Shield After Battle, monograph, designed by Sam Hutchinson, inc. essays by Prof Jo Applin, Dr Rebecca Senior, Saad Maqbool, Dr Sharon Jagger, DUDLEY, supported by Qualitive Research Funding, York St John, Village, and Leeds Inspired
2026. Upcoming Necromancer Conference, Leiden University at Gravensteen Prison, Netherlands
2026. The Big Love Book, curated by George Storm Fletcher
2025. Sharp Edges publication, Threshold, Leeds
2025. Erotic Abstraction exhibition discussion, The Courtauld, London
2024. Talking Sculpture: Dialects of Making Symposium, Symposium convener and panel discussion, York St John University, York
2024. Guest Artist, Axisweb
2024. Guest Artist, Leeds City College
2023. COPY: Unfold issue II, Yorkshire UK
2023. Time V: Solidarity publication with 87 Gallery https://87gallery.co.uk/timesv-solidarity
2023. Touch-Space Conference, panel chair, Henry Moore Institute and University of Leeds
2020-1. I am the merry-go-round horse dragging up the earth beneath me, The Secret Library blog
2019. Summer Days Drifting Away, edited by Nocturne, Index festival, launched at Village, Leeds
2019. DIY and the artist run space, Yan Tan Tether, Huddersfield
2019. A Queer Anthology of Sickness, Contributing Writer, Pilot Press, London
2019. Accompanying text for Heavy Souls Exhibition, Emergency Gallery, Switzerland
2018. Ecologies and Economies of the Artist Led: Space, Place, Futures Symposium, Leeds University School of Fine Art
2018. What Have You Done for Me Lately? Panel Chair, The Tetley, Leeds
2017. You’re Reading into It: Queering Contemporary Minimalism Panel Discussion
2017. Cut Cloth: Contemporary Textiles and Feminism publication contributing writer
2017. Fair Is Foul 001 & WORK/ LABOUR 002, BUNNY publication
2017. Ferrofluid Journal Vol. 3
2013. The Subversive Stitch Revisited: The Politics of Cloth Now, conference presentation, The V&A, London
2013. Pageantry, Salt. Editorial, London and Berlin
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S E L E C T G R O U P E X H I B I T I O N S
2026. Upcoming Perennial, Haarlem Art Space, Wirksworth
2026. Gallery Nasties, serf, part of Situation Festival, Leeds
2026. The Big Love Show, Hyde Park Art Club, Leeds
2025 – 26. Uz, Uz, Uz, The Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery, Leeds University, Leeds
2025. Into the Spirit, Redcar Palace, Redcar
2025. Syncretism, Lacy Road Gallery, New York City, New York
2024-25. Abstract Vernacular, Hypha Studios, London
2024: MSMSu/UFC01, serf, Leeds
2024. The Cloak of Saint Brigid, South Leeds Art Gallery at serf, Leeds
2024. The Field is Forever, Two Queens, Leicester
2024. Ground Test, Gloam, Sheffield
2024. Sacred Play Secret Place, East Street Arts, Leeds
2023-24. Talking Sculpture: Dialects of Making, Vessel Gallery, York St John University, Yok
2023-24. Any Work That Wanted Doing, Leeds Industrial Museum, Leeds
2023. Outpost Members Show, Outpost Gallery, Norwich
2023. Short Lived, HYPHA, Stratford, London
2023. Through the Cracks, Rag Gallery, Manchester
2023. Leeds Artists Show, Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds
2023. It’s a Joy to be Here, 87 Gallery curated in collaboration with Working Class Creatives Database, Hull
2022. Under the Pewter Sky, Gloam, Sheffield
2021-22. Winter Sculpture Garden, Gallery 32, London
2021. The Cold Black Rain Will Be Your Coat, Yonder Gallery, as part of HCMF, West Yorkshire
2021. Ride Your Pony No. 4, Abingdon Studios, Blackpool
2020. Leeds Summer Group Show, online
2020. Queer Contemporaries, AIR Gallery, Manchester
2020. Ones to Watch, Sunny Bank Mills, Farsley, Leeds
2019. Swan Song 2019, curated by Joshua Hart, online
2019. Through the Window, Dai Hall curated by AME, Huddersfield
2019. The Desire to be Part of a Story... Even if it is Somebody Else’s, Yorkshire Hub, Index Festival, Leeds
2019. Serf’n’Turf, Croydon Arts Store, London
2017. Education, GROUP SHOW, Podcast
2017. NAWKI 2, 12ø Collective live streamed from various locations
2017. You’re Reading Into It: Queering Contemporary Minimalism, Vane, Newcastle
2017. MAKE/SHIT, AIR Gallery, Manchester
2017. Hold Fast, Embassy, Edinburgh
2017. Where’s Your Coat You’re Going To Be Cold, Shy Bairns at Caustic Coastal, Manchester
2017. Fair Is Foul, Curated by BUNNY Collective, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
2017. An Offering To Baba Yaga, Serf, Leeds
2017. Limbo Lambada, Hutt Nottingham & IsThisIt?, Curated by Hutt
2016. Swan Song, Winter Solstice 2016 & Eternal Interstice, Summer Solstice 2016, curated by Joshua Hart
2016. Five Finger Discount, Bronze Dog, Sweden
2016. Manchester Contemporary, Caustic Coastal, Manchester
2016. Sirens Song/ Capillaries/ Solomiya Moroz, Fuse Art Space, Bradford
2016. What We Are Doing, Alexandra Park, Manchester
2016. Broken Spaces, Rye Attic, Nottingham
2015. The Guild, Temple Works, Leeds
2015. #Utopia, Art Licks weekend, The Orangery, Clapham, London
2015. Soft Matter, The Wonder Inn, Manchester
2015. Discomfort, Comfort, Curated by Hag x The Coven, New York
2015. Prism Manchester #2, Curated by The Art Bar, Toast, Manchester
2014. The Young Girls Gaze, B U N N Y collective, Soma Contemporary Gallery, Cork
2014. Like, Curated by Arvida Bystrom and Maja Malou Lyse, Gallery Q, Copenhagen
2013. Pageantry, Curated by Salt., LimaZulu project space, London
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C U R A T I O N & O R G A N I S I N G
2024 – present. South Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds
2021 - Present. Vessel, York St John Campus Gallery, York
2016 – Present. Serf committee, serf, artist-led studios and project space, Leeds
2015 – 16. U N N A W A Y, exhibition programme, Huddersfield
2013 – 2014. Soft(2)touch, project space and salon series, Huddersfield
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R E L A T E D W O R K & M E M B E R S H I P
2023 – 2025. Qualitive Research Funding committee member, York St John University
2023 – 2024. Member of the Royal Society of Sculptors
2023. Guest Lecturer, Axis Web
2023. Guest Lecturer, Leeds City College
2021 - 2022. PANIC! Steering Committee, convened by Prof. Griselda Pollock, The Tetley
2019 – Present. Lecturer in Fine Art, York St. University, York
2019. Workshop for Yorkshire Sculpture International at the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds
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E D U C A T I O N
2019. Practice-led PhD. Vice Chancellors Studentship & Yorkshire Sculpture Park, The University of Huddersfield
2013. Textile Crafts Ba (Hons), First Class Honours, The University of Huddersfield
2010. Contemporary Art, Kookmin University, Seoul (study exchange)
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