The language of drawing is translated throughout Charlotte Edey’s tactile, mixed media practice. Mark making and gesture are explored through extensive hand-embroidery and beading on tapestry. Comparable to hatching and stippling, these processes forge direct relationships between line, thread, and surface. Her jacquard weavings are hand embellished with thousands of glass seed beads and freshwater pearls. This latest body of work weaves together organic materials including crystal, moonstone, opalite, obsidian, onyx, lava, and topaz, giving a luminescent quality to the surface of her ethereal compositions.
Charlotte Edey (b. 1992, Manchester, England) studied at the Chelsea School of Art and Design and the Royal Drawing School, London, England. Recent solo exhibitions include Ginny on Frederick, London, UK; Robert’s Gallery, Glasgow, UK; Public Gallery, London, UK; and Flowers Gallery, London, UK. She has participated in group exhibitions at Drawing Room, London, UK; South London Gallery, London, UK; 1969 Gallery, New York, NY; Christies, London, UK; Rugby Art Museum, UK; Cob Gallery, London, UK; The Design Museum, London, UK; and The Great Women Artists curated by Katy Hessel at Palazzo Monti, Brescia, Italy; among others. Her work is held in the permanent collections of Nasher Museum, Durham, North Carolina, USA and The Royal Collection, London, UK. Recently featured as one of the 2023 Artsy “Artists On Our Radar,” Edey’s work has also been featured in publications including Financial Times, Autre, Artnet, Creative Review, Elephant, British Vogue, Metal Magazine, It’s Nice That, Dazed, Elle, AnOther Magazine and others. Edey lives and works in London, UK.
Charlotte Edey Tongue Tied, 2022
Woven jacquard tapestry with silk hand embroidery and freshwater pearl in walnut frame with hinges
70 x 70 cm [HxW] (27 ⁹⁄₁₆" x 27 ⁹⁄₁₆")
Inventory #CE1000
Charlotte Edey Tunnel of Love, 2023
Soft pastel on sanded paper
Framed 26 ¹⁄₄" x 20 ¹⁄₂" x 1 ¹⁄₄" [HxWxD] (66.68 x 52.07 x 3.18 cm); Unframed 24 ¹⁄₄" x 18 ¹⁄₄" [HxW] (61.6 x 46.36 cm)
Inventory #CE1001
Charlotte Edey’s solo exhibition at Anat Ebgi, All Words Are Written In Water, plays with both language and watery forms in subtle ways. Across the gallery, wooden frames shaped like punctuation marks (commas, parenthesis, etc) house the artist's abstract tapestries, pulling the viewer into the midst of her unique conversation. Highlighting the pauses and breaks between language rather than words themselves feels apt for Edey — her weavings and drawings shapeshift before your eyes, evading any clear reading. Made using a digital jacquard loom, Edey’s woven structures are abstract, bodily, and architectural at once — their imagery is suggestive of portals, passageways, eyelashes, or water droplets, without firmly landing in any concrete place. They roam through the world of visions and dreams. The mirrored vinyl installed on the gallery floor creates a watery reflection, adding to the aqueous fantasy. —Lindsay Preston Zappas
"There is something interesting in how the beads transform the surface of the works. In some ways it is like drawing with light: they carry their own luminosity, moving with and responding to changing light and feel unfixed and slippery. The bullseye glass also has this quality. Alongside the glass seed beads and freshwater pearls for the woven works, I was working with organic materials including crystal, moonstone, opalite, obsidian, onyx, lava, and topaz for this show which added a different push and pull to the surface. I consider my works slippery or fragmentary; the frames are the wooden vessels that contain them, as though they would spill out otherwise.” —Charlotte Edey
![This image depicts an artwork by Charlotte Edey titled "Tunnel of Love." This artwork was created in 2023 and measures Framed 26 ¹⁄₄" x 20 ¹⁄₂" x 1 ¹⁄₄" [HxWxD] (66.68 x 52.07 x 3.18 cm); Unframed 24 ¹⁄₄" x 18 ¹⁄₄" [HxW] (61.6 x 46.36 cm). Its medium is Soft pastel on sanded paper.](https://anatebgi.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Charlotte-Edey_CE1001_1713470922.jpg)
![This image depicts an artwork by Charlotte Edey titled "Tongue Tied." This artwork was created in 2022 and measures 70 x 70 cm [HxW] (27 ⁹⁄₁₆" x 27 ⁹⁄₁₆"). Its medium is Woven jacquard tapestry with silk hand embroidery and freshwater pearl in walnut frame with hinges.](https://anatebgi.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Charlotte-Edey_CE1000_1713470861.jpg)
![This image depicts an artwork by Charlotte Edey titled "Tunnel of Love." This artwork was created in 2023 and measures Framed 26 ¹⁄₄" x 20 ¹⁄₂" x 1 ¹⁄₄" [HxWxD] (66.68 x 52.07 x 3.18 cm); Unframed 24 ¹⁄₄" x 18 ¹⁄₄" [HxW] (61.6 x 46.36 cm). Its medium is Soft pastel on sanded paper.](https://anatebgi.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Charlotte-Edey_CE1001_1713470862.jpg)
