Charles Avery has dedicated himself to a singular world-building project through the depiction of an imaginary island. Titled The Islanders, this project describes the formation of Avery's extensive fiction through drawings, writing, objects, architecture, and design.
The Island at the center of Avery's constructed world is located among an archipelago of innumerable constituents. The gateway to the Island is the town of Onomatopoeia, a highly-textured metropolis that bears the hallmarks of an evolving urban landscape. Once the stepping off point for the pioneers who first came, the town experienced rapid transormation from a colonial outpost, to boom town, bustling metropolis, depression-ravaged slum, and finally a regenerated city of culture and tourist destination. The culture and fabric of the Island continue to evolve, further illuminated with each successive work.
The spirit of Avery's imaginary Island is highly engaged with the disciplines and currency of mathematics, philosophy, economics, and anthropology, and he takes inspiration broadly from literature and comedy. Key elements from his drawings are rendered in physical form in his sculptures and installations. As Avery has said, the Island is "a gymnasium for the imagination and an earnest attempt to align the experience of the viewer with that of the artist."
Charles Avery (b. 1973 in Oban, UK) lives and works in London and on the Island of Mull (UK). Selected and recent solo exhibitions include The Nothing of the Day, GRIMM, London (UK) in 2023;The Hunter returns / goes away from, GRIMM, Amsterdam, (NL) in 2022; Zoo, Hat, Bridge, Tree: Architectural Propositions of Onomatopoeia, Vistamarestudio, Milan (IT); a wall, a bridge, an arch, a hat, a side-show, a square circle, a group of friends, and two one-armed snakes, GRIMM, New York, NY (US) in 2021; The Taile of the One-Armed Snake, GRIMM, Amsterdam (NL) in 2020; The Gates of Onomatopoeia, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh (UK) in 2019.
Selected group exhibitons include: Size Matters | Monument Drawing Now, Museum MORE, Gorssel (NL); Positions, part three, Alma Pearl, London (UK); My World, curated by Hans den Hartog Jager, Singer Museum, Laren, (NL); Self-Portraits, GRIMM, New York, NY (US); GLASSTRESS: Venetian Glass Today, Millesgården Museum, Lidingö (SE); Cubitt 30th Birthday Fundraising Exhibition, Victoria Miro, London (UK); Planet B. Climate Change and the New Sublime, curated by Nicolas Bourriaud, Palazzo Bollani, Venice (IT); We, on the Rising Wave, Busan Biennale 2022, Busan (SK); The Hunter's return, Paradys, Arcadia, curated by Hans den Hartog Jager, Triennial of Friesland, Oranjewoud (NL); The City & The City & The City, curated by Tom Morton, Frestonian Gallery, London (UK); Other.Worldly, Fries Museum, Leeuwarden (NL) in 2020.
His work is part of numerous collections including: AkzoNobel Art Foundation, Amsterdam (NL); Arts Council England Collection, London (UK); The David and Indrė Roberts Collection, London (UK); Deutsche Bank Collection, THE EKARD COLLECTION, Frankfurt am Main (DE); FRAC Île de France, Paris (FR); Kunstmuseum, The Hague (NL); KADIST Art Foundation, Paris (FR); Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam (NL); Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar (NL); National Galleries Scotland, Edinburgh (UK) and Tate Modern, London (UK), among others.