When I reflect on my work, the symbolism is stark but these connections are not made in the process. A woman breastfeeding grips onto a bird in flight. A naked woman straddles a huge, sausagey horse. I go to my work to be revealed.
The self-portrait is the starting point. From this routine act of drawing from life, I am able to see myself, to check in. I then redraw and disrupt this observational drawing by bringing in my imagination, psychological narratives from memory, myths and legends, tv programmes, conversations - anything I have on my mind.
This transformation looks different every time, and in turn reveals something of me. Figures enter the page - a second self-portrait / the shadow self, animals let themselves in. My interest lies in the figure as a vehicle for other characters / parts of myself.
The observational drawing becomes an anatomical structure to play with. I bring my own psychological enquiries. It is largely about me exploring my psyche. Allowing the different parts of myself to inhabit the page. I am fascinated by the contrasting sides to a human being, to be all at once a mother, a lover, a teacher, a daughter, a sister, a friend. To be angry, desperate, kind, loving, to be confident and weak. In painting I allow all these sides of myself, the playful, the sad, to come to the fore.
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Jessica Jane Charleston is a British artist, currently living and working in London. She graduated from The Royal Drawing School in 2017, and was awarded the Young Artist Award from the Royal Watercolour Society, UK in 2020. Charleston has exhibited her paintings extensively in London including with Guts Gallery, Saatchi Gallery, London Art Fair (with Nunnery Gallery), Hauser & Wirth’s Mayfair Farm Shop, The Albright, and the Royal Academy. Recently she was selected to exhibit at Christies, London celebrating Picasso: A 50 Year legacy. She has been in residence at the Dumfries House, Scotland, Moritz-Heyman in Pignano, Italy, and at Firstsite in Essex, England. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Dumfries House in Scotland, Moritz-Heyman in Italy, Stuart Hall Library, and HM King Charles in the UK.
Contact:
jessicajanecharleston@gmail.com
EXHIBITIONS
2025 Nightsong (Solo Show) CULT Aimee Friberg, USA
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2024 Looking Glass with Alice Macdonald, Weald Contemporary
2024 Spring Show, Royal Watercolour Society, London
2024 Black Shuck, The Bell Gallery, Suffolk
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2023 Christie’s Lates, Picasso: A 50-year legacy
2023 Drawings selected by Luis Laplace for Hauser & Wirth, Mayfair Farm Shop
2023 Partnership Editions, Mother’s Day Feature
2023 RWS Now, Royal Watercolour Society
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2022 Open Call, Partnership Editions
2022 Cartography of Care, Spilt Milk Gallery
2022 The Summer Exhibition, Royal Watercolour Society
2022 FORTUNA with Anna Ilsley, Asylum Studios
2022 I’ll Be Your Mirror, Alice’s Gallery, Boisdale of Bishopsgate
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2021 A Generous Space, Hastings Contemporary, ASP
2021 Paint Talk presents With Love II, online exhibition
2021 Now & Then, Royal Watercolour Society
2021 For The Many, Not The Few, Guts Gallery
2021 Small Pleasures, All Mouth Gallery, Auction
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2020 Works on Paper II, Blue Shop Cottage
2020 public notice: an exhibition, various locations across London
2020 Small Pleasures Project, Dina Venue
2020 Curated for Covid, in aid of Mind Charity
2020 Art in the time of Corona, Royal Watercolour Society
2020 Art on a postcard, International Women’s Day, The Allbright, Mayfair, London
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2019 ING Discerning Eye, The Mall Galleries, London
2019 Art Car Boot Fair, Margate
2019 Open Salon, Three Colt Gallery, London
2019 Fresh Air, Hot Sauce, Eccleston Project Space
2019 The Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London
2019 New Buds, Old Moon, The Nunnery Gallery cafe
2019 Somewhere Else: Three East Anglian Printmakers, Galeria Cartavetra, Florence, Italy
2019 The London Art Fair, represented by The Nunnery Gallery
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2018 In the Pines, with Beau Rouse, Studio exhibition, Borgo Pignano, Italy
2018 Paper Cuts, curated by Kristian Day, The Saatchi Gallery, London
2018 Invitation to a Rave from Mark Titchner, The Nunnery, London
2018 Downsizing, Cave Space, London
2018 Killing the Angel in the House, Caravanserail, London
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2017 Best of The Drawing Year, Christie’s, Mayfair, London
2017 The Drawing Year, The Royal Drawing School, London
2016 Bow Open, curated by Any Smith, Nunnery Gallery, London
2015 Drawing Intensive, Mercer Chance Gallery, London
2015 Art on a Postcard, Soho Revue Gallery, London
EDUCATION
2016 - 2017 PG Dip - Royal Drawing School (The Drawing Year)
2006 - 2009 BA Hons in Fine Art - Kingston upon Thames Uni
2005 - 2006 Foundation Diploma in Art & Design - CRC
AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES
2024 Artist in Residence, Dumfries House, Scotland
2023 Royal Drawing School residency at Hauser & Wirth Somerset in collaboration with Luis Laplace for Farm Shop, Mayfair
2022 Artist in Residence, Poetry in Aldeburgh
2022 Open Call Artist Winner, Partnership Editions
2020 Young Artist Award, Royal Watercolour Society
2019 Artist in Residence, Dumfries House, Scotland
2018 Moritz-Heyman Residency, Pignano, Italy
2009 15 days, 15 artists, firstsite, Essex
PERMANENT COLLECTIONS
Dumfries House, Scotland, UK
Moritz-Heyman Collection, Italy
HRH Prince of Wales, UK
Stuart Hall Library, Artists’ book Collection, UK
PUBLICATIONS
2019 Ways of Drawing by The Royal Drawing School, Thames and Hudson
2019 Scare-Devil, Chapbook journal of new writing, Tangerine Press
SELF & COLLABORATIVE PUBLICATIONS
2019 Blue Book, Make Mud Press
2018 Heft, Make Mud Press
2018 The Chapette Books, Make Mud Press
2016 Sunk Sun, Make Mud Press
2015 The Green Children, Jardine Press
2009 Next-to-Nothing, Shed Press Publications