An exhibitionary melodrama, one writ through the “ecstatic impulse” of painting, For these thoughts we change into pink is Charlott Weise’s first solo exhibition in the UK.

Charlott Weise is concerned with being in the world, with all its chaoticness and intoxication. Working fluidly, through the instinctual sojourns allowed for as a brush meets canvas, Charlott’s paintings attempt to resolve this experience of being in whilst also aiming to challenge or provoke what existence can be.

Writ in thick swathes of oil, Charlott’s paintings are more than acts of defiance; they stand tall as gestural traces pulled from the body, the mind. In this way, her works are more like allusive play scripts than solid, didact, narratives.

Following this premise, the forms and figurative suggestions—each reaped from Charlott’s extensive inventory of female iconography—that appear in the human-sized paintings and small drawn works in this exhibition act as theatrical portals; they linger as to create a quasi-Kafkaesque mise-en-scène.

Charlott’s instinctual approach to painting accentuates the sense of impending performativity bound in the surfaces of her artwork; a tentative sense where we feel unsure of what could unfold. Indeed, rather than illustrating a grand narrative theme, here fluid brushstrokes and layers of twisting marks make steadfast narratives leak. Dramatically unmoored, intimate, erotic and made up as if a powder blushed figure within a Fuseli sketch, the artworks in For these thoughts we change into pink render the artifice of an existence through the formalities of painterly action.

artist biography

Charlott Weise (b. 1991, Görlitz, Germany), was a participant at De Ateliers (Amsterdam) in 2016. Previously, she studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie (Amsterdam), as well as studying under Class of Prof. Christian Macketanz, at Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden, and the artist Heike Dittrich, in Bautzen (Germany).

Select exhibitions include: Kiss my Soul, Dordrechts Museum, Dordrecht, The Netherlands (2023); How to Cook a Wolf, two seven two gallery, Toronto, Canada (2023); Mutig Wandeln, Kunsthalle Görlitz, Germany (2023); Global Cows 2020, Images Festival, Toronto, Canada (2021); Tinted Glass, Kunsthalle Münster, Germany (2021); Notes on Wine, hosted by Cascina Gilli, NEVVEN, Castelnuovo Don Bosco, Italy (2021); Group exhibition curated by Pádraic E. Moore at Classics Museum Dublin, Ireland (2020); Koninklijke Prijs voor Vrije Schilderkunst, Koninklijke Palais Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2020); The Annotated Reader, curated by Ryan Gander & Jonathan P. Watts, Quartz Studios, Torino, Italy (2020); Vordemberge-Gildewart Award, GEM, Den Haag, The Netherlands (2020); Schulz & Weise, duo exhibition with Franziska Schulz, W139, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2019); ampersands, W139, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2019); Take me away, A Maior, Viseu, Portugal (2018); He at Sea, Kunstfort bij Vijfhuizen, Vijfhuizen, The Netherlands (2018); A Postcard from Amsterdam, duo, Lower.green, Norwich, UK (2018); The Ashtray Show West, Belmacz, London, UK (2018); If I was your Girlfriend, Belmacz, London, UK (2018); The Yellow Wallpaper, Ginerva Gambino, Cologne, Germany (2017); Johnny Suede, Damien & the Love Guru, Brussels, Belgium (2017); CILADA, A Maior, Viseu, Portugal (2017); 9 PAINTINGS, Galería Formatocomodo, Madrid, Spain (2016); NADA Miami Beach, Galería FORMATOCOMODO, USA (2016); Whiskers by the name of lilacs, Galerie Rianne Groen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (2016);PAAREN, PS projectspace, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2015); SELECTED, Castrum Peregrini, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2014); Entering the Painting, tegenboschvanvreden, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2014).

Awards and grants include: Artist Grant of the Mondriaan Fund (2022); Winner Koninklijke Prijs voor Vrije Schilderkunst (2020); Nominated for Vordemberge-Gildewart Award (2020); Artist Start Grant of the Mondriaan Fund (2017); Praktijkverdieping Postacademische Instellingen Grant of the Mondriaan Fund  (2014-2016); Nominated for Rietveld Academie Award (2014); Nominated for Rietveld Fine Arts Prize (2014); 2. Prize E.O. Plauen Junior Award (2012).

Alongside her individual practice, Charlott is also a member of Cold in Church, a band of performative artists based in Amsterdam. Recent performances include: IF—A MUSICAL WITH POP MUSIC, NOISE, AND MANY THEATRICAL ASIDES, Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam The Netherlands (2023); and Hot Mesh, Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2022).

Charlott lives and works between Amsterdam (The Netherlands) and Görlitz (Germany).