Charles Avery
Untitled (Pool, Onomatopoeia Zoo) 2016 Pencil,acrylic,gouache,watercolour and ink on paper 53 1/2 × 79 1/2 in
Since 2004, Charles Avery has devoted his practice to the description of a fictional Island, which he continues to elaborate with its own population, customs and cosmology, nature and architecture, expressed in the form of large-scale drawings, sculptures, installations, texts and moving images. This on-going body of work created within a specific framework is rooted in Avery’s own life and upbringing on the Isle of Mull, off the West coast of Scotland. The Island is located at the centre of an archipelago of innumerable constituents. The gateway to the Island is the town of Onomatopoeia—once the stepping off point of the pioneers who first came to the place, turned colonial outpost, turned boom town, bustling metropolis, depression ravaged slum, to regenerated city of culture and tourist destination.
Born in Oban, Scotland in 1973, Charles Avery lives and works in London. The first most comprehensive presentation of The Islanders project, The Islanders: An Introduction was exhibited at Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, London in 2008 and toured to The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; and Museum Boijamas Van Beunigan, Rotterdam in 2009. The most recent survey show, showcasing the last five years of Avery’s Islanders project, was held in 2015 at the Gemeente Museum in The Netherlands. Recent solo exhibitions include: Study #15: Charles Avery, David Roberts Art Foundation, London (2017); The People and Things of Onomatopoeia: Part 2, Pilar Corrias Gallery, London (2017); Charles Avery: The People And Things of Onomatopoeia, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh (2015); What’s the matter with Idealism?, Gemeente Museum, The Hague (2015); fig-2 2/50 Charles Avery, ICA Studio, London (2015); What’s so great about Happiness? The people and things from Onomatopoeia, Grimm Gallery, Amsterdam (2014); It Means It Means! – A Drawn Exhibition by Charles Avery & Tom Morton at the Museum of Art, Onomatopoeia and Pilar Corrias Gallery, London, Pilar Corrias Gallery, London (2013); It Means, It Means! – A Drawn Exhibition by Charles Avery & Tom Morton at the Museum of Art, Onomatopoeia and Galerie Perrotin, Paris, Galerie Perrotin, Paris (2013); Vitrines: Charles Avery, L’Antenne, Le Plateau, FRAC Ile de France, Paris; and Galleria S.A.L.E.S, Rome (2013); Place de la Revolution, Pilar Corrias Gallery, London (2011); Onomatopoeia, Part 1, EX3- Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea, Florence; Kunstverein Hanover; and FRAC île-de-france Le Plateau, Paris (2010). courtesy of artsy.net, pilarcorrias.com