Charles Avery (born 1973) is a Scottish artist from

Oban Oban ( ; ' in Scottish Gaelic meaning ''The Little Bay'') is a resort town within the Argyll and Bute council area of Scotland. Despite its small size, it is the largest town between Helensburgh and Fort William. During the tourist season, th ...

. He currently lives and works in London. Since 2004 he has devoted his practice to the perpetual description of an imaginary island. Through drawings, sculptures and texts. Avery describes the topology, cosmology and inhabitants of this fictional territory, from the market of the main town

Onomatopoeia Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', ''m ...

to the Eternal Forest where an unknown beast called the

Noumenon In philosophy, a noumenon (, ; ; noumena) is a posited object or an event that exists independently of human sense and/or perception. The term ''noumenon'' is generally used in contrast with, or in relation to, the term ''phenomenon'', which ...

is held to reside. The project can be read as a meditation on some of the central themes of philosophy of art-making, and on the colonization and ownership of the world of ideas.

Exhibitions

The first most comprehensive presentation of The Islanders project, "The Islanders: An Introduction", was exhibited at Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, London, in 2008 and toured to the

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art is part of the National Galleries of Scotland, which are based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The National Gallery of Modern Art houses the collection of modern and contemporary art dating from about 1900 to th ...

, Edinburgh, and

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Municipal Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen () is an art museum in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The name of the museum is derived from the two most important collectors of Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans and Daniël George van Beuningen. It is located at ...

, Rotterdam, in 2009. Other solo presentations include the exhibition "Onomatopoeia, Part 1", which was exhibited at EX3- Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea, Florence in 2010 and toured to Kunstverein Hannover and Frac Ile-de-France/le Plateau, Paris in 2011. Recent group exhibitions include: Life Forms, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm (2009); A Walk in Your Mind,

Hayward Gallery The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the Roy ...

, (2009); A Duck for Mr Darwin,

Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art (also known simply as (the) Baltic, stylised as BALTIC) is a centre for contemporary art located on the south bank of the River Tyne in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England. It hosts a frequently changing variety ...

, (2009); and Altermodern: 4th Tate Triennial, London (2009). Avery represented Scotland at the 52nd

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

in 2007 and participated in the British Art Show 7 and Folkestone Triennial in 2011. In 2014 Avery's work formed part of the "Generation" exhibition across Scotland, with his work displayed in the Edinburgh Gallery of Modern Art. In 2015 Avery had a solo exhibition at GEM, the contemporary art museum in The Hague (Netherlands)

References

* Artist of the week in th
Guardian
* Charles Avery i
Frieze Magazine
* The Islanders exhibition i
Museum Boijmans van Beuningen
in Rotterdam, the Netherlands {{DEFAULTSORT:Avery, Charles Scottish contemporary artists People from Oban 1973 births Living people