Charo Oquet

Charo Oquet uses painting, installation, performance, photography, and film to explore themes of displacement, identity, and cultural hybridity. Her works blur the boundaries between ritual, memory, and contemporary visual culture, creating immersive experiences that reflect on migration, gender, and decolonials aesthetics.
In her recent series, Fragments, Trances, and Improvised Architectures, Oquet returns to painting as a means of investigating the cyclical nature of creation. Fragmented canvases, layered collage, and gestural sculptural forms come together in a process of erasure and reconstruction, mirroring transformation as an essential part of existence. Her abstract wooden sculptures extend this exploration, acting as vessels of energy—imbued with spiritual and elemental forces, resonating like sacred objects.
Describing this body of work, Oquet explains, “Much like life itself, these pieces serve as a reflection on our past, offering an opportunity for learning and growth as we shed the unnecessary to embrace a more fulfilling existence.” Through this process, her work becomes a meditation on renewal, movement, and the constant evolution of form and meaning.” - Oolite Arts

This work is a representation of my latest exploration. I have revisited painting, my original medium, to unveil insights into the nature of the artistic process. Through collage and fragmented canvas elements, I have imbued these works with layers that speak to the cyclical nature of creation – an interplay of erasure, deconstruction, and reimagining. Much like life itself, these pieces serve as a reflection on our past, offering an opportunity for learning and growth as we shed the unnecessary to embrace a more fulfilling existence.

In addition to these paintings, I have also delved into sculptural forms, crafting articulated, gestural abstract wooden pieces that embody a spirit of spontaneous creation. Through an emphasis on improvisation and a subtle nod to performance, these sculptures emerge as conduits of energy, evoking the notion of anointment and the mystical resonance of chakra stones. Each painted surface activates these structures, infusing them with a palpable sense of vitality, akin to the pulsing energy that permeates the earth and our very being.