Zoë Charlton’s Rendition Opens in Washington DC

A new exhibit for FSU Art BFA ’95 Zoë Charlton depicts a new body of work based primarily in sculpture – somewhat a departure for the artist who primarily draws. Several formative experiences have shaped D.C. and Baltimore-based artist Zoë Charlton’s career and inspired her work. Growing up, she was a frequent visitor to her grandmother’s blue house and wooded property in the Florida panhandle, a place that was “dense with growth and large with memory,” where extended family frequently gathered. At Florida State University, one of Charlton’s mentors, the late Ed Love, told her to “make sure you study with people who look like you.” He knew something she didn’t fully understand at the time: by being intentional about who you surround yourself with, you are building a community – a concept that would increasingly become important in her art and in her life. More recently, Charlton purchased from a Baltimore antique store a life-sized African figure from Cameroon and named it “Sib,” because she immediately identified the sculpture as a sibling or as kin. She calls it her doppelgänger.

CulturalDC has also commissioned Charlton to create a limited-edition print that will be sold to support the installation. Each print, similar in design to the collage on the gallery wall, will feature a unique element added by the artist. Rendition will be on view in the CulturalDC Mobile Art Gallery at Union Market in Washington DC from February 8 through March 22, 2020. You can read more about it here.