CV

1966-7 / Foundation / Maidenhead College of Art
1967-70 Dip AD Course / Leeds College of Art
2002-4 MA Philosophy Open University         

Selected exhibitions:

2025 / OS group exhibition / Frome

2022 / Rugby Open / group exhibition

2019 / Coventry Open / group exhibition

2018 / Colour Radicals / solo exhibition / Rugby Art Gallery

2016 / John Moores Painting Prize / group exhibition / Walker Art Gallery / Liverpool

2014 / Signs Of Disorder / solo exhibition / Rugby Art Gallery

2011 / Motel Knadski /Trajector Art Fair / Contributing Artist / Brussels

2011 / Kiss Me Quick / group exhibition / Harbour Arm Gallery / Margate

2011 / Airvent /AirSpace Gallery/ solo exhibition / Stoke-on-Trent

2010 / There Is Beauty In The City / group exhibition / Ezcurdia_30 Galler / Gijon / Spain

2009 / The Instability of Spaces / solo exhibition / AirSpace Dialogue Box

2010 / Common Ground /AirSpace group exhibition / Stoke-on-Trent

2009 / Inter?ogation / Collaboration / Walsall New Art Gallery.

2009 / Marina Abramovich / group participant / Whitworth Gallery / Manchester.

2009 / Aftermath / AirSpace studio artists / Leek Institute / Leek

2008 / Short Cuts /group exhibition / AirSpace Gallery / Stoke-on-Trent

2008 / Salon / D2 Gallery / Leipzig / Germany

Bio

Bernard Charnley is an English painter born in 1948 in Reading and now based in Frome, Somerset. Charnley trained in graphics and painting at Leeds College of Art. His interest and study in philosophy led to graduating from the Open University with his MA. This informs his body of work which, through distinct series and ranging across the figurative and abstract, reflects on the nature of social fracture.

Current selection

These oil paintings address land and seascape traditions through which Charnley assembles a critical visual dialogue on the zeitgeist of contemporary crises. Balancing abstraction and figuration, the work engages with spatial tensions between geometry, surface, and illusion. Using an intuitive and gestural process, the paintings presently feature accumulated paint layers, selective use of oil bars and canvas insertions. Through scraping, scoring, and reworking, an unsettled suggestive surface results. Titles drawn from chance phrases further disrupt meaning, inviting multiple interpretations.

The conceptual underlay to this series lies in ongoing collective societal and ecological perceptions. Metaphor and ambiguity troubling the scenic form is the resulting method of approach.