Charles Norris is a relief printmaker, photographer, architect and urban designer who divides his time between Cambridge, MA and Popham Beach, ME. His interests in photography and watercolor painting evolved throughout design school and have continued in his personal artwork and professional practice.
Architecture, planning, photography, painting and printmaking have all merged as interrelated passions of the artist, with the camera’s eye frequently serving as a vital window and common denominator in the creative process. Since 2010, Norris has immersed himself in the art of woodblock printmaking at Abrazos Studio in Somerville MA, where he prepares and inks the plates, pulling his prints on a hand press. His current body of work reinterprets his photographic compositions into graphic woodcuts, often focusing on his key sources of inspiration — shifting tidal patterns and marine environments.
The artist’s woodblock prints have been selected for multiple juried shows including the Boston Printmakers Biennial (2015 and 2017), Danforth Museum, Maud Morgan Chandler Gallery, Lunder Gallery at Lesley University, Deitrich Gallery at C7A, Maynard ArtSpace, Falmouth Artists Guild, Gallery Twist, and Concord Art. Norris has also exhibited prints at Sotheby’s in Damariscotta and the Green Lion Gallery in Bath on the Maine coast. He recently presented a lecture on his nautical prints and conducted a woodcut workshop at the Maine Maritime Museum in conjunction with Broadside, an exhibit of prints as reflections of Maine’s marine heritage.
Rhythm & Blues depicts and abstracts the graphic nature of New England’s tidal rhythms. The rippled and fluid patterns come alive and reverberate across the room.
This is Norris’s first exhibition at Gladstone.