Charlotte Culot

In painter Charlotte Culot’s toolbox, there are gouaches she makes herself from pigments, as well as paper, glue, and scissors. The technique recalls Matisse’s cut-outs. The use of gouache is appealing for its dense, matte quality and its almost immediate luminosity. Charlotte Culot constructs her paintings like architecture: from the colored papers she tears, arranges, and assembles, abstract forms emerge, creating a free, structured, open, and complete field. Beneath the apparent order of forms, however, there is a certain “chaos”: an initial impetuous burst of lines and strokes thrown down “at random.” This first layer is then partially or completely covered by the colored papers.

Once assembled, they find their place within a “cosmos” (order). Micro or macro formats—the scale matters little, because in this work color advances frontally, sharing a beating heart, a source of Energy. In her still lifes, gradations of whites and beiges applied with a palette knife highlight materials such as gesso, plaster, and granular cement. These canvases reveal a more intimate side of CHC’s pictorial universe.

Alongside her painting practice, Charlotte has created a rug collection entitled “RHIZOMES.” These pieces are made from very high-quality materials. Wool, silk, and linen are crafted using the hand-knotted technique. The rugs are published by “RHIZOMES” in limited and exclusive editions, available in several formats. Their particularity lies in the fact that they can also be displayed on the wall, like a tapestry or a painting. “RHIZOMES” positions itself within the niche of artist-designed rugs, presenting its creations as works of art.