EDUCATION
MA Drawing, 2018  |  UAL Wimbledon College of Art
(UAL) Art and Design Foundation, 2015  |  City Literary Institute
BA (Hons) Contemporary Media Practice, 1994  |  University of Westminster
ADDITIONAL TRAINING
Discovering Voices, ICA Cultural Leadership Programme, 2008  |  Institute of Contemporary Art


GROUP SHOWS 2023:
Liverpool Biennial
10 June - 17 September 2023

The 12th edition of Liverpool Biennial curated by Khanyisile Mbongwa, focuses on the theme ‘uMoya: The sacred Return of Lost Things’. It addresses the history and temperament of the city of Liverpool and is a call for ancestral and indigenous forms of knowledge, wisdom and healing. In the isiZulu language, ‘uMoya’ means spirit, breath, air, climate and wind.
Artists:
Albert Ibokwe Khoza (South Africa); Antonio Obá (Brazil); Belinda Kazeem-Kaminski (Austria); Benoît Piéron (France); Binta Diaw (Senegal/Italy); Brook Andrew (Wiradjuri/Australia); Charmaine Watkiss (UK); David Aguacheiro (Mozambique); Edgar Calel (Guatemala); Eleng Luluan (Rukai Nation/Taiwan); Fátima Rodrigo Gonzales (Peru); Francis Offman (Italy/Rwanda); Gala Porras-Kim (Colombia/USA); Guadalupe Maravilla (El Salvador/USA); Isa do Rosário (Brazil); Julien Creuzet (Martinique/France); Katy'taya Catitu Tayassu (Brazil/France); Kent Chan (Singapore/The Netherlands); Lorin Sookool (South Africa); Lubaina Himid (UK); Lungiswa Gqunta (South Africa); Melanie Manchot (Germany/UK); Nicholas Galanin (USA); Nolan Oswald Dennis (South Africa/Zambia); Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum (Botswana/Canada/The Netherlands); Rahima Gambo (Nigeria); Rahmi Hamzi (Palestine); Raisa Kabir (UK/Bangladesh); Ranti Bam (Nigeria/UK); Rudy Loewe (UK); Sandra Suubi (Uganda); Sepideh Rahaa (Iran/Finland); Shannon Alonzo (Trinidad & Tobago); Torkwase Dyson (USA); Unmute Dance Theatre (South Africa).
Read more here

Invited Artist: RWA Open Exhibition
Royal West of England Academy (RWA), Queens Rd, Clifton, Bristol BS8 1PX
9 September - 14 January 2024

This year the selection panel includes Charmaine Watkiss and Meryl Ainslie together with RWA Academicians Fiona Robinson PRWA, Dallas Collins VPRWA, Lucy Austin RWA, Angela Lizon RWA and Karl Singporewala RWA.

1-54 Presents Transatlantic Connections: Caribbean Narratives in Contemporary Art Curated by caryl* ivrisse crochemar & [creative renegades society]
1-54 Presents is pleased to announce Transatlantic Connections: Caribbean Narratives in Contemporary Art, a group exhibition presented on the occasion of 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair’s 11th London edition.
10 - 13 October 2023
Christie’s, London
8 King St, St. James's, London SW1Y 6QT

Artists:
Juan Carlos Alom, Sonia Elizabeth Barrett, Sonia Boyce, Helen Cammock, Michael Forbes, Satch Hoyt, Nadia Huggins, Alain Joséphine, Anina Major, Marcia Michael, Johanna Mirabel, Lavar Munroe, Horace Ové, Zak Ové, Ada M. Patterson, Sheena Rose, Jamilah Sabur, Charmaine Watkiss, Alberta Whittle, Aubrey Williams.
Read more here

Drawing attention: emerging artists in dialogue

York Art Gallery, Exhibition Square, York YO1 7EW
27 October - 28 January 2024


PAST SOLO SHOWS:
2022 - Charmaine Watkiss: The Wisdom Tree | Leeds Art Gallery, The Headrow, Leeds
2021 - The Seed Keepers Cromwell Place, London
SELECT GROUP SHOWS:
2023 - O Quilombismo | Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Berlin, Germany
2023 - Spirt in the Land | Nasher Museum at Duke University, USA
2023 - Your Presence Does Not Escape Me: Charmaine Watkiss, Delita Martin, Tessa Mars

2022 - Drawing Attention: emerging British ArtistsBritish Museum, London

2022 - The Company She Keeps Tiwani Contemporary, Lagos, Nigeria
2021 - RA Summer Exhibition 6 Burlington Gardens, London
2021 - To The Edge of Time KU Leuven Libraries, Leuven, Belgium
2021 - Breakfast Under the Tree - Curated by Russel Tovey
Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate

2021 - Drawing Biennial 2021 Drawing Room, 1-27 Rodney Place, London SE17 1PP
2020 - The Abstract Truth of Things Tiwani Contemporary Gallery, London W1W 8PB
2020 - Me, Myself and I Collyer Bristow Gallery, London WC1R 4TF
2020 - Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize | The Gallery, De Montford University, Leicester
2020 - Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 66 Orchard Place, London E14 OJY
2019 - Thinking Graphite Drawing Projects UK, 10 Stallard Street, Wiltshire, BA14
2019 - Figure This!Thames Side Studios Gallery, Woolwich, London SE18 5NR
2019 - Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize  |  Salisbury Museum, Wiltshire
2019 - Out of Darkness  |  St John on Bethnal Green, Cambridge Heath Road,  E2 9PA
2018 - Wimbledon College of Art MA Degree Show  |  Merton Hall, Wimbledon,  SW19 3QA
2018 - Against Static (Curated by Tania Kovats)  |  Wimbledon Space, Wimbledon,  SW19 3QA
2018 - Lumen Residency Exhibition  |  Crypt Gallery, Euston Rd, London NW1 2BA
2017 - New Perspectives  |  The Centre for Recent Drawing, London N1 1SB
2017 - She Says  |  Nolia's Gallery, 60 Great Suffolk St, Bankside, London SE1 0B
2017 - Same Difference  |  The ArtSpace, Cass Art 103 Clarence St, Kingston upon Thames KT1
2017 - East Wing Collective Group Show 
Menier Gallery 51 Southwark St, London SE1 1RU
2016 - Art At The Bridge #7  |  Tower Bridge Engine Rooms, Tower Bridge Road, London, SE1

COLLECTIONS
The British Museum, London, UK
Leeds Art Gallery, UK
The Government Art Collection, UK

Cartwright Hall Museum, Bradford, UK
Abbot Hall Museum, Kendal, UK

Nasher Museum at Duke University USA
International private collections

RESIDENCIES
Spring 2022 edition at Launch Pad LaB residency at La Boissière South West France. I was in residence with Laura Pold, we were co-selected by Nathan Ladd, Curator at Tate, with a focus on practices that address ecology and the natural environment. (I have posted a film about the residency in the MEDIA section of this website)
Click here to find out about Launch Pad


Lumen Residency, Atina, Italy, 3 - 17 August 2017

AWARDS
Shortlisted awardee 198 Gallery Women of Colour Award, 2020
Shortlisted for the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, 2019


WRITING
Carving out meaning - I wrote an article for British Museum Spring / Summer '22 magazine about an object in their collection, you can read it here

PUBLICATIONS
Spirit in the Land, 2023; Trevor Schoonmaker - Duke University Press ISBN: 9780938989455
Big Bang Imagining The Universe, 2021, Hannibal Books ISBN: 9789463887878
Vitamin D3: Today's Best in Contemporary Drawing, 2021, Phaidon ISBN: 9781838661694
Me Myself and I Catalogue, 2020, Collyer Bristow Gallery - Read here

Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize Catalogue, 2019, edited by Anita Taylor ISBN 978-1-9999936-1-0
Figure This! Exhibition Catalogue, edited by Elinca Cerla, ISBN 978-1697367522
Ethics: Preserving Voices Vulnerable to Erasure, Shades of Noir, 2018


ARTICLES
The Winds of Past and Present (Liverpool Biennial) - Artists Responding To magazine - Read here
Women artists shaping British art, writen by Shasti Lowton, Read here
Review of The Wisdom Tree,  written by The Double Negative Magazine, Read here

Artlyst interview of the month written by Paul Carey-Kent, Read here.
Contemporary Art Society article about my acquisition for Abbot Hall, Read Here
The Seed Keepers, commissioned article by Victoria Adukwei Bulley, Read here
Frieze - Charmaine Watkiss on reconstructing the image of black womanhood, Read here
Elephant Magazine pick of October '21 essential artists, Read here
Phaidon Article - Charmaine Watkiss Why I Draw, Read here
Eye On Art Review The Abstract Truth of Things, Read here
An exploration of the Abstract Truth of Things, Aurella Yussuf -
Read here
Frieze review, The Abstract Truth of Things, Aida Amoako - Read here

IN CONVERSATION (online)
BBC Radio 3: Free Thinking - Liverpool Biennial with Melanie Manchot and Judy Loewe Listen here
TALK ART PODCAST - With Russell Tovey and Robert Diament - Listen here
THE SHOWROOM PRESENTS IN.FLO.RES.CENCE -
Andrew Pierre Hart, Charmaine Watkiss, Nduduzo Makhathini & Katherine Finerty - Watch here
COLLYER BRISTOW GALLERY - ME, MYSELF AND I - exhibition tour and talk with curator Rosalind Davis, watch here


TALKS AND SEMINARS
2023 - Circumnavigation: Drawing Symposium | National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
2022 - Charmaine Watkiss & Rommi Smith in conversation | Leeds Art Gallery
2022 - Panelist - Art at the Intersection: Culture, Identity, Mental Health | National Gallery, London

2019 - Figure This! - Panel discussion around socio political ideas embodied in figurative work
2019 - Speaker at Why Drawing Matters conference, Salisbury Museum, Wiltshire.
2018 - I Am the Person I Know Best: Conversations Within Black Women's Art (Artist talk)  |  
The V&A Museum, London - Click here for more information.
2017 - An Evening with John Blanke (Artist talk)  |  The British Library, Euston Road, London

2017 - Alev Lenz Studio: Panel Discussion & Workshop (Panel discussion exploring BME representation in the creative industries) | Alev Lenz Studio, London
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