Charmaine Watkiss lives and works in London. The artist draws stories inspired by research into the African Caribbean diaspora and the rituals, traditions, mythologies and cosmologies associated with that, and maps them onto female figures. Recent work has focussed on the natural world, and investigates the herbal healing traditions of Caribbean women, especially those of her mother’s generation. Watkiss completed an MA in Drawing at Wimbledon College of Art in 2018. The artist’s recent solo debut exhibition ‘The Seed Keepers’, Cromwell Place, London, 2021, portrayed a matrilineal pantheon of “plant warriors,” safeguarding and facilitating cross-generational knowledge.
Launchpad LAB Residency, 2022, Charente, France
Left: They Didn’t Come to Stay, 2017, Pencil, graphite powder, silver wax, acrylic and ink on Fabriano paper, 175x135cm. Right: Facing The Wind, 2021, Pencil, graphite powder, silver wax on Fabriano paper, 175x130cm.
The Matriarch I: Graphite, pencil, watercolour, gum, ink and Reckitts blue on paper, 175x130cm. The Matriarch II: Pencil, coloured pencil and Reckitts blue on paper, 175x125.5cm
The Company She Keeps, Tiwani Contemporary Lagos 2022. Courtesy of the artist and Tiwani Contemporary. Installation view
Left: Warriors Inhabit Mind, Body and Spirit, 2021, Graphite, pencil, watercolour and Ink on paper, 76x56cm. Right: Tenacity Serves the Warrior Well, 2021, Graphite, pencil, watercolour and ink on paper, 76x56cm.
Press
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News
Contemporary Art Society has acquired two paintings by Charmaine Watkiss for Abbot Hall, Lakeland Arts.
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Interview
Victoria Adukwei Bulley, Charmaine Watkiss on Reconstructing the Image of Black Womanhood, Frieze, 17th November 2021. Image: Charmaine Watkiss, The Seed Sowers Alchemists, 2021, graphite, watercolour and ink on paper, 29.7 x 21 cm. Courtesy: Tiwani Contemporary and the artist
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Profile
Charmaine Watkiss - Why I Draw, Phaidon, 17th February 2021. Image: Charmaine Watkiss, Courtesy Phaidon