Staff Profile
Dr Charlotte Cullen
Lecturer, Art
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I am an artist working in sculpture which is jagged and raw, scarred and bent. I exhibit nationally and internationally and my work is held in private collections around the world. I was awarded my PhD in practice research from the Centre for Sculptural Thinking at the University of Huddersfield, supported by Vice Chancellors studentship and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. I teach across Fine Art studio modules and curate Vessel Gallery, York St John campus gallery which I initiated with Dr Nathan Walker.
- School – School of the Arts
- Email – c.cullen@yorksj.ac.uk
- Research - View my work in RaY
Teaching
I teach across Fine Art studio and professional practice modules, including all undergraduate levels, MFA and PhD, with a focus on sculpture, material practice and situating practice through live briefs. I am a module lead for 2nd year Fine Art and 1st year Fine Art modules. I undertake research supervision, my research interests include sculpture, material practice, social class, queer theory, feminism, trauma, grief, care, collections and archive intervention, and artist-led and DIY practices and curation.
Research
My practice resonates around forms of care, healing and repair, engaging with disciplines that encompass a material practice informed by socially classed labour. An embodied material engagement has led to explorations in steel, and more recently glass, applying techniques including plasma cutting and weaving. Practicality leads form to support a drawn surface which seeks to hold narrative, history and mythology which sit within a lineage of descent, in an effort to recognise lived experiences for those whose lives exist outside of dominant documentation but refuse a co-option into the languages which have denied them.
My PhD thesis, titled 'The Politics of Wanting Things. Manifestations of Cruel Optimism in artist-led and DIY curatorial practices: A Case Study of the UNNAWAY exhibition programme' positioned an embodied, material understanding of disadvantage and material aspiration. This proposed that the matter of materials is inherent to understanding discursivity and representation within artistic practices and framed the ways in which artists find ways to practice in spite of or as manifest through lack of provision. This embodied material politics continues to ground ongoing research which includes the trace of trauma, care, sickness and grief.
Professional Activities
I am a member of the Yorkshire Sculpture International Sculpture Network and I have exhibited, and undertaken residencies and commissions national and internationally, including with Leeds Art Gallery; The Tetley, Leeds; Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival; UK New Artists; Patriothall Edinburgh; Yiyuan Tang Museum, Shanghai, China; Gloam, Sheffield; 87 Gallery, Hull; Croydon Arts, London; The Arthouse Wakefield; Leeds Central Library; Gallery 32, London; Embassy, Edinburgh; Sunny Bank Mills, Farsley; Jakwaa Arts Centre, Mombasa, Kenya; Artcore, Derby; Abingdon Studios, Blackpool; Leeds College of Art; SO Festival, Skegness; The Royal Pump Room, Harrogate; Pilot Press, London; Emergency Gallery, Switzerland; Vane, Newcastle; Alexandra Park, Manchester; SOMA Contemporary Gallery, Cork, Ireland; The Coven, New York; LimaZulu, London; Gallery Q, Copenhagen; The V&A, London.
In 2021 Angus Reid wrote in The Morning Star that “[Cullen] greets the needs of the present without sentimentality and with clear eyes”. I currently curate Vessel gallery with Dr Nathan Walker within York St John University Campus, York. Previously, I was panel member of the PANIC! Network, convened by Prof. Griselda Pollock and The Tetley, Leeds, a committee member at serf, Leeds, and curator of UNNAWAY, Huddersfield.
