Ultramarine by Charles Reed

Lynn Rodeman Metzger Galleries

Ultramarine features a collection of paintings and drawings by artist Charles Reed. Through layers of oil paint, delicate colored pencil drawings, spray paint and collage, the exhibition explores marine biology, symbology, and atmospheric worldbuilding. In the work, light reveals and shrouds information, and implies that the paintings have unseen features. Viewers are invited to explore settings that tow a line between familiar and otherworldly. These scenes are inhabited by references to symbols, aquatic organisms, and cityscapes. The relationship between what is visible and invisible spurs ambiguity that invites the viewer to investigate these environments with open imagination.

About Charles Reed

Charles Reed was born in Cleveland, OH in the year 2000. Growing up in the Midwest, he spent his adolescence absorbing comic books, surrealist films, and psychedelic music. He spends much of his time drawing and hanging out in the woods. Reed takes inspiration from a variety of sources including marine biology, cartoons, and oceanography. His work explores worldbuilding and the relationship between what is seen and what is unseen. He also has an interest in observing natural and artificial light which influence his paintings. His work includes oil paints, acrylic, collage, colored pencil, charcoal, and ballpoint pen drawings.

Reed is the Recipient of the 2023 Outstanding Junior Gillette Academic Scholarship. His work has been featured in Everything but the Kitchen Sink; Volume II, at Bounce Innovation Hub, Akron OH and the past three annual Juried exhibitions at the Emily Davis Gallery. He is scheduled to receive his BFA in painting and drawing from Myers School of Art, The University of Akron in 2024.

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