Charles Birnbaum

My photographs explore the liminal space between clarity and ambiguity, a boundless transcendent essence that is both settled and unfathomable. My goal is to raise unresolved questions leading the viewer to closely examine the images and attempt to discern the indeterminate; to find that detail that leaps out and pricks the viewer with a strange and often inexplicable emotion.

My sculptures have a distinctly primordial origin and evoke the Baroque, but in a wilder more animal way. I push at boundaries, exploring places where the forms beckon the beholders and animate the work. My art challenges people’s predicable classifications, making them “work” to question and expand their unconscious responses and have a richer aesthetic experience. I delve into a deeper understanding of Carl Jung’s theories of archetypes and the balance of opposing sexual character traits. The dead bone-white surfaces and the patterns undulate across the organic forms accentuating tension, creating visual and tactile dissonances and inviting viewers to engage actively with the work.

BFA - Kansas City Art Institute
Tyler School of Art

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2011
An Orgy of Form, Cross Mackenzie Gallery, Washington DC

2010
Common Purpose, EO Art Lab, Chester, CT

2009
Concepts and Processes, Silvermine Art Gallery, New Canaan, CT
Sculpting the Self: Myths & Archetypes, Hoyt Institute of Fine Art, New Castle, PA
Illusions, Gallery 621, Tallahassee, FL
Myth, Memory & Imagination, Madelon Powers Art Gallery, Stroudsburg University, PA

2007
Transformations, Strecker-Nelson Gallery, Manhattan, KS

2006
Reclaiming Lost Rituals, Casa Nova Gallery, Santa Fe, NM


GROUP EXHIBITIONS & SHOWS

2021
NYC Art Movement, Astor Place, New York, NY
After Dark, Praxis Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
Flow, Odetta Gallery, New York, NY
MonoVisions Photography 2021
City, Grey Cube Gallery, Helsinki, Findland
Layered Light, Light Art Space, Silver City, NM
The Dreamer, LoosenArt, Rome, IT
Refresh, Odetta Gallery, New York, NY
Art in the Time of Corona, Dab Art, Los Angeles, CA
Life in the Pandemic, Davis Orton Gallery, Hudson, NY
Page Turner, Odetta Gallery, New York, NY
Grayscale Wonderland 4, bG Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

2020
Essential Works, Odetta Gallery
Garvey|Simon Gallery, New York, NY
Shane Townley Gallery, New York, NY

2019
Select 4, Garvey|...