Charmaine Watkiss RWA is a British artist whose practice investigates the botanical legacy of the Caribbean. She is particularly interested in healing traditions handed down through the matrilineal line, her work reflects this through constructed narratives around women. She accesses public archives which serve as a material from which she constructs narrative responses. Her compositions of women all use her own likeness as a way of enacting what she calls ‘memory stories’, channeling a multitude of strong female archetypes in order to inform her works on paper, some as large as life sized.
In 2024 she completed a 6 month Sloane Lab Fellowship, in conjunction with the British Museum and Natural History Museum. The title of her project - Investigating ancestral cures: herbs and healing traditions of the transatlantic Caribbean, primarily drew on information contained in Hans Sloane’s two volumes A voyage to the islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica. Her intention was to delve deeper into the healing traditions of enslaved Africans and indigenous Caribbean people which fed into western science. The result of her fellowship was a sculptural piece made out of brass which is now on permanent display in the British Museum Enlightenment Gallery’s 'Sloane' Case.
Watkiss has an ongoing series of ‘Plant Warrior’ women, who are empowered regal figures who represent particular plants. These women are proud and upright with a wallpaper backdrop - their formality referencing art historical portraiture of the enlightenment era as a way of speaking about the colonial. Around their necks are the fruit or flower of the particular healing plant that they embody, each with their own story to tell; some referencing a deeper connection to the cosmos. Recently the series has evolved to speak about specific plants which travelled across the transatlantic along with the enslaved. Watkiss has also spoken about contemporary ecological concerns by making a small series of endangered warrior species. Much of her research has enabled her to make connections with indigenous knowledge from Africa and the foundations of Caribbean culture.
Her 2023 commission for the Liverpool Biennial ‘Witness’ allowed Watkiss to expand her practice into sculpture and installation. The small devotional clay figures allowing her to speak about aspects of the same colonial story; creating environments that allow her ‘memory stories’ to connect to the viewer in a more felt sense. Her installation speaks to the sacred ritual traditions which also crossed the atlantic; her use of material allows the work to speak in ways that her drawings can’t.
Notable exhibitions include: Legacy solo show, Abbot Hall Museum 2024; In Praise of Black Errantry, Palazzo Pisani S. Marina (During the 60th Venice Biennial, 2024)l; Reverb, Stephen Friedman Gallery London 2024; Hard Graft: Work, Health and Rights, Wellcome Collection 2024/25; O Quilombismo, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin 2023; Liverpool Biennial, 2023; Spirit in the Land, Nasher Museum at Duke University, 2023; The Wisdom Tree, her first institutional solo show at Leeds Art Gallery, 2022; Drawing attention: emerging British artists group show at the British Museum, 2022; and Breakfast Under the Tree, curated by Russel Tovey, a group show at Carl Freedman Gallery 2021.
Her work is held in private and public collections including:
The British Museum, London UK; The Government Art Collection, London UK; Cartwright Hall Museum, Bradford UK; Abbott Hall Museum, Kendall UK and Nasher Museum at Duke University, Durham NC USA, Katrin Bellinger collection.
Notable exhibitions include: Legacy solo show, Abbot Hall Museum 2024; In Praise of Black Errantry, Palazzo Pisani S. Marina (During the 60th Venice Biennial, 2024)l; Reverb, Stephen Friedman Gallery London 2024; Hard Graft: Work, Health and Rights, Wellcome Collection 2024/25; O Quilombismo, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin 2023; Liverpool Biennial, 2023; Spirit in the Land, Nasher Museum at Duke University, 2023; The Wisdom Tree, her first institutional solo show at Leeds Art Gallery, 2022; Drawing attention: emerging British artists group show at the British Museum, 2022; and Breakfast Under the Tree, curated by Russel Tovey, a group show at Carl Freedman Gallery 2021.
Her work is held in private and public collections including:
The British Museum, London UK; The Government Art Collection, London UK; Cartwright Hall Museum, Bradford UK; Abbott Hall Museum, Kendall UK and Nasher Museum at Duke University, Durham NC USA, Katrin Bellinger collection.
Charmaine is an independent artist who lives and works in London.
In the studio with They Didn't Come to Stay, 2017