charlie barlow
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Statement

‘I make; they grow, proliferate and collapse - my sculptures have a fidgety life. They’re sneaky too.’

Charlie materially explores boundaries, creating forms which dribble between sculpture, painting and performance. She exaggerates consumer objects to disrupt the controls of social order, favouring the free and unruly. Commodity choice is based on cleanliness to invert purpose, objects of desire to indulge form and rubbish to rebuild status, moving from mushy toilet rolls to shiny beads and blubbering rubber gloves. Through experimental hands-on play with these everyday things, a transformation occurs; functional basics turn into uncertain arrangements, worlds and creatures; a becoming of the ‘Other’. Found tangled with architecture or trespassing grounds, bodily senses are imposed upon. Cumulative constructions expand as they fall apart and leak. When sculptural death arrives, sticky remains linger amongst anxious piles of stuff - an environmental disaster combatted by the hoarding and 
reabsorption of materials into the cycle of creation. Charlie uses dark humour to make the identifiable ambiguous, undoing the distinctions between nature and culture in search for alternative structures of organised chaos. 

Recent Research


Recent work explores regeneration and decay in cities and towns visited during overseas residences; using found waste, sculptural drawing and local making processes, Charlie builds assemblages to remap areas.

Biography

​Charlie Barlow (b. Peterborough, UK) is an ecofeminist artist exploring polluted boundaries through material metamorphosis. She currently works as an art teacher at Ken Stimpson Academy, Peterborough. She received an MA in Fine Art from the Slade School of Fine Art in 2018, where she was the recipient of the Clare Winsten Memorial Award (2017). Recent exhibitions include One of Each Kind, 142 Gallery, Felixstowe (2024), Raveningham Sculpture Trail, Norfolk (2024), 
The Nomenclature of Colours III, UCL, London (2024), Now and Yesterday, Metal Culture, Peterborough (2023), Touch Me Baby, Bad Art, The Bomb Factory Art Foundation, London (2022), Inside Job, Tate Modern, London (2022), SPILL Festival of Performance (2021), Love Light Festival, Norwich (2020), The Tortoise will Reverse Itself, Academy for Visual Arts, Hong Kong (2018) and Platform 1, Bloomsbury Theatre, London (2018). She has undertaken residencies with Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge (2014), Dyad Creative, Norwich (2017), Kaitak Centre, AVA, HKBU, Hong Kong (2018), stichting NAC, Rotterdam (2023) and Studio459, Tomar, Portugal (2024).

​Education

​2020-2021 PGCE + QTS (Distinction) -
University of Hull / The Deepings SCITT, Peterborough
​2016-2018 MA Fine Art (Distinction) - Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London 
2011-2014 BA Fine Art (First-class Hons) - Norwich University of the Arts, Norwich 


Residencies / Awards

2025     
Artist in Residence, Studio459, Tomar, Portugal (Upcoming)
2024     Artist in Residence, Studio459, Tomar, Portugal
2023     Artist in Residence, stichting NAC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2021     Metal Mentoring Programme, Metal Culture UK, Remote
2021     Spill Open Selection, The Pacitti Company, Ipswich
2021     Art//Tech//Play Practice Days, Collusion, Norwich Arts Centre, Norwich
2020     a-n Bursary, a-n The Artists Information Company, Remote
2018     Artist in Residence, Kaitak Centre, Academy for Visual Arts, HKBU, Hong Kong
2017     Clare Winsten Memorial Award, Slade School of Fine Art, London
2017     Artist in Residence, DYAD Creative, Norwich
​2016     Slade Bursary, Slade School of Fine Art, London
2015     Arts Internship, Vivacity, Peterborough ​
2014     Leverhulme Arts Scholarship, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge

​Selected Exhibitions
​ 
Solo / 2-3 Person

2024     
One of each kind - 142 Art Gallery, Felixstowe
2023     Now and Yesterday - Metal Culture, Peterborough
​2018     The Tortoise Will Reverse Itself - Academy for Visual Arts, HKBU, Hong Kong
2017     Touch to Voice - Dove Street Studios, Norwich 
2016     Wash Your Dirty Linen In Public - Peterborough City Gallery 

Group

2025     The Nomenclature of Colours III - UCL, London (online)

2024      Raveningham Sculpture Trail - The Raveningham Centre, Norfolk

              The Nomenclature of Colours II - UCL, London (online)

2023     Norwich Life - Norwich Printing Museum at Anteros Art Foundation, Norwich
             Colour/Print/Poetry - 
Slade Research Centre, UCL, London (online)

2022     Touch Me Baby - Bad Art, The Bomb Factory Art Foundation, London    
            
Colour/Pigment/Poetry - Slade Research Centre, UCL, London (online)
             Inside Job, Tate Modern, London

2021     Spill Festival of Performance, Ipswich (commission)
             Hot Air - Manor Place Warehouse, London
             Colour/Collage/Poetry - Slade Research Centre, UCL, London (online)

2020     Love Light Festival - Norwich (commission)

2019     Just Putting It Out There - Harts Lane Studios, London 
             TSB - Tate Modern, London
             All Work and All Play - Air Gallery, Altrincham
             The Clunker - Playhouse Bar, Norfolk and Norwich Festival, Norwich
             The Nomenclature of Colours - Slade Research Centre, UCL, London

2018     Inside Job - Tate Modern, London
             Platform 1 - Bloomsbury Theatre, London     
 
2017     The Clunker - Playhouse Bar / Anteros Arts Foundation, Norwich
             Authentic Tongues - Bloomsbury Theatre, London
             MEMEMEME - Crypt Gallery, London

2016     Live Art - Wymondham, Norfolk
             BAS8 Takeover - NUA, Norwich
             In Loving Memory - Geddes Gallery, London
​             Scratch Performances - Anteros Arts Foundation, Norwich

2015     Peterborough Arts Festival - Peterborough (commission)
             Shades of Yellow - Embassy Tea Gallery, London 
             Secret Circus - The Key Theatre, Peterborough (commission)

2014     LAS Public Presentation - Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridgeshire 
             Art Car Boot Fair - Redwell Brewery, Norwich 
             In Loving Memory - Stew Gallery, Norwich
             Process - Stew Gallery, Norwich
             Fourteen - The Fabric Warehouse, Norwich

2013     NUA - Firstsite, Essex
             Aience - NUA, Norwich
             No Working Title - Tate Modern, London

Text


2018     Urban Textures: Reassembling the Relegated
2017     A Tour of The Monuments of Stephenson Street 

2014     Material Parasites: Ooze as Sustenance 

Press / Publications

2025     The Ones That Fizz, Curated Selection, Lydia Catterall, Axis Web, 26 March
2024     Highlights, Axis Web, 7 Oct 

2021     Spill Festival Interview, BBC Radio Suffolk, 29 Oct, Ipswich
2021     On Memory, Spill Festival of Performance, Ipswich

2020     Isovist, An Interview by James Milner, 02 Dec, London
2020     Love Light Festival Interview, BBC Radio Norfolk, 14 Feb, Norwich
​2017     Slade Research Weeks, Research on the Body, Colour & Sound, The Slade Research Centre, p.10-11, London
​2016     Slade Research Weeks, Research on the Space, Collaboration, Body & Voice, The Slade Research Centre, p.15-17, London
2016     Wash Your Dirty Linen In Public Review, Alistair Gentry, 25 March, Peterborough

Teaching / Workshops

2025     
Secondary Art Teacher - Ken Stimpson Academy, Peterborough
2024     Secondary & Primary Art Teacher - Marshfield's School, Peterborough
2023     Secondary & Primary Art Teacher - Marshfield's School, Peterborough​
2022     Secondary Art Teacher - Spalding High School, Spalding
2021     Secondary Art Teacher - Ken Stimpson Community School, Peterborough
2018     Visiting Lecturer - Norwich University of the Arts, Norwich
2017     Workshop Leader - Bath Spa University, Bath
​© charlie barlow 2025
​