My paintings are very textural and built up over long periods of
time. The superimposition of textures, images, words, loose, watery
washes of paint and veils of translucent fabric or paper, creates a
visual threshold in my work which is something to look at as well as
to look through. These surfaces retain or reveal a “memory “ of
preexisting stages or structures. The result is a palimpsest, in
which some images, colors, textures are obfuscated, while others
remain visible, however shaped or shaded by previous or subsequent
gestures, images or events. In my most recent series of paintings I
am using this process to explore images from popular culture. More
specifically, for some pieces, I have begun to use images from
Westerns and Film Noir as inspiration for my paintings. I am mainly
using stereotypical images of America, a cowboy, gangster or desert
highway, as a way of exploring our past and present perceptions of
ourselves and others, which comprise and form our identity as members
of a society, or citizens of a country that once again seems to be in
transition and in the process of redefining its values, agenda and
role in relationships.
Painting for me serves as a metaphor for the phenomenon of
recollection. My process of painting mimics or simulates the process
of remembering with all its layers and numerous textures. Hopefully,
introducing into this process images that come out of our cultural
memory will result in paintings that will not only serve to illuminate
the past but will also encourage interpretations which function as
starting points themselves. As Adam Phillips says “Remembering...is a
process of redescription; the echo can be different each time. The
past is in the remaking.” I believe, with Bersani, that our language,
whether visual or verbal “doesn’t merely describe identity, but
actually produces moral and perhaps even physical identity...(and) is
precisely the very possibility of change, the space that can serve as
a springboard for thought, the precursory movement of a transformation
of social an cultural structures.”

NICOLE CHARBONNET

Born
1966, New Orleans, LA

EDUCATION
1991 M.F.A, Boston University, Boston MA
1988 B.A., University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
1987 Academie Goetz, Paris, France
1986 Cleveland Institute of Art, Lacoste, France

HONORS AND AWARDS
2008 Donna Perret Rosen Artist-in-Residence, Isidore
Newman School, New Orleans, LA
2006 Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant, New York, NY
2006 Artist’s Fellowship Foundation Grant, New York, NY
2002 Louisiana Division of the Arts Fellowship, Baton
Rouge,LA
1999 Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant, New York, NY
1998 Residency, Walter Art Center, Tulsa, OK
1995 Art Matters, Inc. Fellowship, New York, NY
1993 E.D. Foundation Grant, Ridgefield, NJ
1992 Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant, Montreal,
Canada
1991 Esther B. Kahn Award, Boston, MA
1990 Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant, Montreal,
Canada
1990 Zigler Museum Award, Jennings, LA
1989-91 Teaching Assistantship, Boston University
1988 Award for Painting, University of Virginia
1987 Studio Fellowship, Academie Goetz, Paris, France
1986 Scholarship to Study Abroad, Cleveland Institute of
Art, Cleveland, OH

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2008 “Enchanted Forest,” Winston Wachter Fine Art, New
York, NY
2008 “Dots, Loops and Stripes,” Arthur Roger Gallery, New
Orleans, LA
2008 Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
2008 Reynolds Ryan Art Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2007 “Film Stills,” Winston Wachter Fine Art, Seattle, WA
2007 BSG Modern, Atlanta, GA
2007 “Wild America,” Muse Gallery, Jackson, WY
2006 “1001 Nights (Paintings To Make You Love Me),”
Winston Wachter Fine Art, New York, NY
2006 “American Icons,” Muse Gallery, Jackson, WY
2006 “Go West,” Spur Projects, Portola Valley, CA
2006 “The Truth About God,” Arthur Roger Gallery, New
Orleans, LA
2004 "Tell the truth, but ride a fast horse", Arthur Roger
Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2004 “The Drama You Crave,” Winston Wachter Mayer Fine
Art, New York, NY
2003 “The Places You Take Me,” Winston Wachter Mayer Fine
Art, New York, NY
2002 “Landscapes and Heroes,” Galerie Simonne Stern, New
Orleans, LA
2001 George Hemphill Fine Art, Washington, DC
2001 “How To Live, What to Do,” Winston Wachter
Mayer Fine Art, New York, NY
1999 “Covers,” Galerie Simonne Stern, New Orleans, LA
1998 Holliman Gallery, Walter Art Center, Tulsa, OK
1997 Jack Meier Gallery, Houston, TX
1995 “X Paintings,” Galerie Simonne Stern, New Orleans, LA

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2007
“Unbridled,” Spur Projects, Portola Valley, CA
2006
“Women With Guns,” Delgado University, New Orleans, LA
Newcomb Art Gallery , New Orleans, LA
Winston Wachter Fine Art, New York, NY
Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, UT
2005
“Come Back Exhibition,” Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans,
LA
Kidder Smith Gallery, Boston, MA
“Art Toronto”, Toronto, Canada
Muse Gallery, Jackson, WY
Marilyn Wilson Gallery, Birmingham, AL
Allene Lapides Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2004
Allene Lapides Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
Jan Baum Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Winston Wachter, Seattle, WA
“NOPD: New Orleans Pattern and Decoration,” Newcomb Art
Gallery, New Orleans, LA
Cavalier Gallery, Greenwich, CT
2003
“ArtToronto”, Toronto, Canada
“Loyola Faculty Show,” Museo Civico, Villanovaforrru,
Italy
“New American Painting,” Nikola Rukaj Gallery, Toronto,
Canada
“Alumni Show,” Fayerweather Gallery, Charlottesville,
VA
2002
“New American Painting,” Open Studio Gallery, Boston,
MA
2001
“Julia Street North,” Masur Museum of Art, Monroe, LA
1999
“Self Images,”Galerie Simonne Stern, New Orleans, LA
1998
New Orleans Museum of Art Triennial
1997
Marilyn Wilson Gallery, Birmingham, AL
“Asprodites, Charbonnet, Vartanian,” Galerie Simonne
Stern, New Orleans, LA
Memphis Biennial, Memphis College of Art, Memphis, TN
“Entergy Louisiana Open,” Contemporary Arts Center,
New Orleans, LA
1991
“New Work, Young Artists,” Miriam Walmsley Gallery,
New Orleans, LA
Boston University Art Gallery, Boston, MA
1990
“Louisiana Painters,” Zigler Museum, Jennings, LA
“New Talent,” Miriam Walmsley Gallery, New Orleans, LA
1989
“A View of Contemporary Women Artists,” Historic New Orleans Collection, New Orleans, LA
“Louisiana Landscapes,” Downtown Gallery, New Orleans,
LA
“Emerging Artists,” Miriam Walmsley Gallery,
New Orleans, LA
“New Year/New Talent,” Academy Gallery, New Orleans, LA
1988
Fayerweather Gallery, Charlottesville, VA