Chelsea-Louise Berlin

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Is a London based artist, designer and author who works with many different genres and mediums across numerous projects within or around similar ethos.

 

Born in the west end of London she studied Art and Design at Chelsea School of Art, before opening a small company in the mid-eighties ‘Monochrome Design’ primarily producing limited edition hand printed and painted t-shirts and one-off paintings and banners based on a continuing theme of work; ‘Art of the Subconscious'.

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Whilst exhibiting this portfolio of works on paper and canvas versions at the ‘Moscow Club, Soho; Crucial and Blenheim Galleries, Portobello Road; The Cut in Waterloo and the Opera House Night Club, she was also involved in Interior design, window dressing and making one-off pieces of furniture and props.

These were almost always made entirely from found or collected objects and used in both the home and window and shop display.

 

She has exhibited photographs of 'The Bench' at the Everyman in NW3 along with producing a limited edition volume of the photographs in book form, 'A Folio/S&M hits town' as a solo exhibition at the ‘Julian Hartnoll Gallery’ St.James, and then at ‘The Gallery’ Liverpool and ‘the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery’ Stoke, as part of 'Creative Rage'.

 

Most recently she contributed to the initial ideas for and then became one of the contributing artists at the Saatchi Gallery for the UK’s first ever Rave retrospective exhibition ‘Sweet Harmony – Rave Today’ which garnered excellent review and response from both the press and public alike.

 

Her 29 sq metre installation was a serial visitor attraction and included more than 1500 historical flyers, original artwork, clothing, membership cards, photographs, magazines and other paraphernalia from the period 1986-1997.

Some of the contributing pieces are included in her seminal book ‘RaveArt’ which formed part of the installation and became the exhibition shops best-selling item.

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Much of her work deals with the exploration of and unification of race, creed, colour, sexual and gender identification and practice as well as the extremes of human nature, whilst also looking at the relationships between inanimate objects, nature and human interaction without specific definition.

 

Utilising her vast ‘Berlin Collection’ of ephemera and pop art artefacts from the 1980’s on-wards she also works with the social history of youth and pop culture to produce her books and pop art pieces, reflecting on the relationship between historically powerful events and their influence on today’s youth culture and pop art.

 

​​Works include; ​

 

“Art of the Subconscious”

Pen & ink drawing print and soon to be sculptural acrylic/wood pieces.

Work that began whilst she was involved in the club scene during the early nineteen-eighties that spawned t-shirt sales, gallery exhibitions and night-club banners, these are being re-visited, evolved and re-imagined for the 21st century in both drawn, printed and sculpted forms.

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"A Folio"/ S&M hits town. 

Pen and Ink original drawings on paper, risograph prints on paper, acrylic on canvas, and large-scale reverse print on acrylic sheet.

Contemporary Pop Art renditions based on anonymous and personal photographs of sexual, deviant and sado-masochistic events, moments and postures.



"Unity"  

Abstract expressionist (action works) acrylic paintings on canvas.

Based on a single palette of colour split into differing shades, the canvases explore the relationship between people within community and the bigotry and prejudice that exists, whilst noting how all people originate from the same place but are separated by societal and perceived differences.

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"The Bench"

Photographic project and book chronicling the life and times of an inanimate object photographed in silhouette.

Produced over a period of 5 years, her collection of photos and the resultant book explore the stories the Bench might tell if it could speak; the relationship between ‘it’, nature and humans as they journey through space and time.

Using these snapshots of moments frozen in time, the work allows both the viewer and ‘the bench’ differing definitions and descriptions of what is ongoing or has happened.

 

“#TurnOnTuneInGetOnOne”

Installation of more than 1500 club and Rave era flyers, paraphernalia, clothing, photographs, magazines, membership cards and other items specifically made for the ‘Sweet Harmony – Rave Today’ exhibition at the Saatchi gallery.

This piece is to be re-imagined for further touring shows and new sculptural/mixed-media pieces worked on for further exhibitions.

 

“SeeNoEvilHearNoEvilSpeakNoEvil”

Pop art pen and ink, spray paint and collage pieces using popular cultural images as well as politicians’ portraits in her own personal style, these works represent the problems she sees in the current denial of climate, economic and other international issues by major politicians, corporate identities and governing bodies.