{"id":101139,"date":"2026-01-16T09:17:42","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T16:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=101139"},"modified":"2026-01-19T09:52:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T16:52:26","slug":"quiet-weighty-and-assembled-james-charles-at-phillips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/quiet-weighty-and-assembled-james-charles-at-phillips\/","title":{"rendered":"Quiet, Weighty, and Assembled: James Charles at Phillips"},"content":{"rendered":"
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James Charles, “No Title,” house paint, 23 7\/8 x 24 in.<\/p><\/div>\n

One of the disappointments at the semiannual Poor Yorick Open Studios is the absence of James Charles. He occupies prime real estate at the crease in Poor Yorick\u2019s B-wing, operating out of a large, enclosed space that you can catch glimpses of in our video profile of the artist from 2012<\/a>. He\u2019s there almost every day, quietly working, mixing paint, sanding edges, taping off lines. An introverted individual, he does not open his studio at the regular events. He\u2019s not on social media. He has very little presence in our attention-demanding world. Which gives a little extra urgency to see his exhibition downstairs at Phillips\u2019 Dibble Gallery, in Salt Lake City.<\/h4>\n

Working in a language of squares, rectangles, and clean divisions, Charles avoids spectacle in favor of precision, restraint, and slow visual accumulation. At first glance, these works seem coolly composed\u2014simple blocks of color arranged in halves or quadrants\u2014but the longer you stay with them, the more the surfaces appear lived-in: worked, adjusted, quietly unsettled. That tension\u2014strict geometry against tactile, physical surface\u2014runs through the show. In “Untitled #9,” a cool grey and olive band occupies the upper portion, hovering over a warm brown field below. Near the bottom edge, a thin blue bar interrupts the composition like a held breath. The palette across the exhibition is deliberate and weighty: deep blues, muted greys, ochres, rusts, reds. Even when the colors intensify, Charles resists drama in the usual sense. In “No Title,” a broad red field dominates the lower half, while the top is divided into white and orange panels that contain small green and blue squares. It\u2019s bold, but not loud. There\u2019s a sense of gravity to these colors, but the scale\u2014mostly around two feet square\u2014keeps the encounter intimate. You begin to take them in from across the room, but need to meet them at arm\u2019s length.<\/h4>\n

The works inevitably nod toward Josef Albers, with their repeated use of the square as both structure and subject\u2014one hue pressing forward, another receding, the whole painting shifting with small changes in tone. But where Albers pursued optical clarity and control, Charles allows the surface to remain imperfect and physical. His planes feel stained, rubbed, layered\u2014less like pristine modernist modules and more like forms carried forward into a weathered present.<\/h4>\n