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Charlie Stein
Light Under Pressure -
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Selected Group exhibitions include (Upcoming) Haus am Lützowplatz , Berlin (2025);(Upcoming) duo show, Kunstverin Schorndorf, Germany (2025); (Upcoming) Kunsthalle 2 of CCA Andratx, Mallorca (2025); (Upcoming) Above the Sea of Air, Holitopia Festival for Arts & Futures, re:future lab, HTW Campus Wilhelminenhof, Berlin (2024); Sound & Vision, curated by Art On A Postcard, presented by War Child, 180 Studios, London (2024); Where the Wild Roses Grow, Schloss Görne, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2023); Blind Visions, Treptow Ateliers, Berlin, Germany (2022); Elb/Hängung #2, Villa am Elbhang, Hamburg, Germany (2022); Contemporary Istanbul, Ambidexter.Xyz, Istanbul, Turkey (2022); Fivel, Valerius Art Gallery, Luxembourg (2022); Wow Now, Setareh, Berlin, Germany (2022); A Portrait of Spirits, Bark Berlin, Germany, (2022); The Outside of the Inside, Bark Berlin Gallery, Germany (2021); Direkte Auktion, Various Locations, Berlin, Germany (2021); Prognose, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, Germany (2021); Winds of Change NFT Exhibition, Priska Pasquer Gallery, Cologne, Germany (2021); Artificial Natures, Bark Berlin Galllery, Germany (2021); Behind the Scenes of Hidden Tracks, Schaufenster, Berlin, Germany (2021); NFT Kitties LAB, bark Berlin Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2021); Hallelujah!, God is a Woman, Valerius Gallery, Luxembourg (2021); Sotheby’s Charity Auction, Vienna, Austria (2021); Perspectives, Re-Future Lab, Berlin, Germany (2020); Echt und Flash, Sculpture Triennial, Bingen, Germany (2020); Something True, Schaufenster, Berlin, Germany (2020); Nebulous, Studio Baustelle Berlin, Germany (2020); _____Poetics, House of Poetics (in collab. With Cooper Union), New York, USA (2019); Artists & Allies II, Signs & Symbols Gallery, New York, USA (2019); Könnte aber doch, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, Germany (2019); Seitenweise Kunst, Scientific Library Mainz, Germany (2019); En Bloc, Galerie AG, Schwerin, Germany (2019); Your Dreams Are My Reality, Berlin, Germany (2019); En Bloc, Galerie Nicole Gnesa, Munich, Germany (2019); All Out, Kwadrat Galerie, Berlin, Germany (2019).
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Highlights and AwardsCharlie Stein's work can be found in the collection of Telos Foundation, Switzerland; Collection of the Academy of the Arts Stuttgart, Germany; SMAC Berlin Collection, Germany; Setareh Collection; Collection of the China Australia Art Foundation; Art Collection of Limburg and the Von Keltenborn Collection.Charlie Stein will be joining the Painting Diary Art Publication Residency in Vienna, March 2025. In 2024 Stein was the recipient for the residency program at ISCP in New York. Stein has also been awarded with the Art Fond Foundation Berlin, Development Grant 2022; a nomination for the Villa Aurora Artist Residency in Los Angeles in 2020, the 2019 Painting 4.0 Art Prize of the City of Limburg, a nomination for the 2018 Art Prize of Wesseling; the 2018 Grant of the City of Esslingen for Cultural Development, the 2017 Residency at Herrenhaus Edenkoben; the 2016 Residency at the Cultural Academy of Tarabya; a nomination for the Karl-Schmidt-Rottluff Grant in 2016; the 2015 ACAF Residency Grant of the Australia China Art Foundation, Shanghai, China, a nomination of the 2014 Walther-Stöhrer Prize; the 2014 FöPS Prize for Social Sciences; the 2014 Residency at Trélex Residency, Switzerland; the 2013 Scholarship of the State of Baden-Württemberg to reside in Shanghai; the 2010 Klett-Passage Art Prize, Stuttgart; the 2010 DAAD Scholarship, Beijing, China; the 2008 Art Prize of the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation, Warsaw, Poland.
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Other works, particularly in the Thesmophoria series (named after an ancient Greek fertility festival), address the unrealistic expectations placed on women to look or behave in a certain way. In these paintings, figures are depicted in various stages of being injected. These works speak to the pressure placed on women to fulfill impossible standards of beauty – forever smoother, perkier, younger – but also to processes of artificial insemination, which, as Stein notes from personal experience, can be both empowering for women and isolating. The rubbery, reflective surface of the black latex suits her figures wear taps into the over-sexualisation and commodification of women (they are literally wrapped in plastic), but also serves as a kind of armour, a form of self-preservation.‘In physics the concept of ‘black body radiation’ describes how a “black body” (an idealised object that absorbs all electromagnetic radiation that hits it) emits thermal radiation,’ explains Stein. ‘Even in a vacuum—where matter is absent—an object can still radiate energy in the form of light and heat due to its temperature. This radiation is faint but persistent and exists even in extreme conditions.’ In her paintings then, the idealised object – the female figure – becomes a symbol of hope and creativity, of an energy that persists despite the hostile environment that surrounds it. This is the light that exists under pressure.We perhaps see this idea most clearly in the Parthenogenesis paintings which depict sculptural forms against draped backdrops, recalling historical depictions of the model in the artist’s studio. Yet, it also speaks to how Stein creates a feeling of intimacy in works devoid of bodies, such as Soft Portrait and Stack (Tenderness). Alongside the ‘figurative’ paintings, there is something vaguely apocalyptic and pathetic about the piles of inflated forms in these works, but they are arguably the most affecting. Is it because they convey a sense of release and hope—of letting go and rebuilding again? Or is it simply the appeal of a soft place, somewhere to hide, something to cushion a fall?
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Charlie Stein, Thesmophoria (Phase VI), 2024
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Charlie Stein, Thesmophoria (Phase IV), 2024
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Charlie Stein, Thesmophoria (Phase V), 2024
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Charlie Stein, Parthenogenesis (II), 2024
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Charlie Stein, Kitty with Teeth and Pills (Still Life), 2024
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Charlie Stein, Thesmophoria (Phase II), 2024
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Charlie Stein, Parthenogenesis IV, 2024
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Charlie Stein, Thesmophoria (Phase III), 2024
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Charlie Stein : Light Under Pressure
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