Charlie Edmiston
Octavia Art Gallery is pleased to present Fishing with Dynamite by Charlie Edmiston. Fishing with Dynamite presents a new body of work with over thirty-six pieces, creating Edmiston’s largest exhibition to date.
In 2021, Edmiston developed a visual language concluding with sixteen irregular shapes which would later serve as the foundation of the exhibit. The varying forms are repeated, resized, flipped and rotated. Each artwork on display is comprised of only the selected shapes.
Edmiston’s sixth solo show includes the first series of works implementing a medium other than spray paint, marking the end of an era. Exploring new ways to achieve flat color fields, an ultra-matte acrylic paint is applied to pieces of raw MDF. Additionally, hardwood cutouts are sanded to a smooth finish and treated with oil. The painted surfaces and solid wood are then carefully assembled, completing the work.
With animated shapes jumping beyond the frame, the new collection of wall sculptures ignores the standard format we’ve come to expect. Edmiston noted, “After nearly two decades of making work confined by a rectangle, I’ve found new freedom within my practice. I feel like I'm just getting started.”
Charlie Edmiston began his career as a graffiti artist working in a variety of styles and mediums, including colorful hard-edge paintings, large scale murals, and bold design graphics. He later expanded his work to include letters and geometric shapes, which formed the basis of his mixed media, abstract paintings. Edmiston was born in and resides in Los Angeles. He received a BFA from Otis College of Art and Design, CA. He has exhibited nationally and internationally including Scope Miami, FL; Urban Art Fair, France; Urban Art Exhibition, Taiwan; and Avenue des Arts Gallery, CA, upon many more. During the fall of 2019, he participated in an artist residency at Hotel El Ganzo, in San Jose del Cabo, MX.