CHARLOTTE ROSE

Charlotte Rose is a self-taught artist who explores the intersection of nostalgic branding and human experience. While her work has gained national recognition, she is an artist with much to be proud of. Her journey into this existence was somewhat natural: having grown up with a mother who is a painter, her earliest memories were of watching her mother doodle on the sofa or on a canvas in the kitchen. Over time, Charlotte honed her skills with encouragement from a mentor who inspired her to explore her creativity through paint. “I’ve always felt lucky for that. I think most people have an artist within them, but it often feels distant or untouchable, an intangible, shapeless thing. My mum and my mentors brought that formless possibility into focus and made it real.”

Interview by Leigh Maynard.

Charlotte Rose wears CHANEL Le Lift Flash Eye Patches. Photographed by Max Ragan. Styled by Alton Hetariki. Makeup by Ninni Nummela using CHANEL Beauty. Hair by Masaki Kameda. Charlotte appears courtesy of Premier Talent.

Today, Charlotte has developed her distinctive artistic voice around late-20^th-century branding and our relationship with it. “The late-20th-century branding era was the last period in which companies were unapologetically bold about what they were selling. It was brash, confident, and drenched in post-war American optimism. Nothing was covert or ironic; it was all right there on the surface. Today, branding feels more self-conscious. Corporations hide their intentions behind moral messaging and carefully curated authenticity. That shift from overt persuasion to covert manipulation really fascinates me. In my work, I want to recreate that bold, seductive promise while also revealing the mechanisms behind it. It’s a way of playing with nostalgia and critique at the same time.” Her work, she says, is ultimately a mirror held to the world, allowing us to examine our relationship to marketing and branding and how they shape our human experience. “I explore familiar objects like cigarette packs and nostalgic mid-century branding to show how easily we romanticise things that are actually harmful. I’m interested in that space where corporate intention meets personal meaning, where something designed to sell to us ends up becoming part of our identity and our culture.”

Her recent show at The Maddox Gallery delved into 20^th-century literature, Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, George Orwell’s 1984, and Bukowski’s poem style. “By merging these two worlds, the work creates satirical links between iconic literature and iconic branding.” And this approach has led to wide-reaching recognition, and a recent highlight included the opportunity to be part of a show at The Museum of Perth in Scotland, where one of her Macbeth paintings was in good company amongst the works of a first edition folio of Shakespeare's Macbeth, along with Dame Judi Dench’s Lady Macbeth stage costume. Accolades like this spur her on. “In the next couple of years, I hope to develop my artistic style and see my work hanging in different countries !!”

Faux fur coat by DKNY. Denim jeans Calvin Klein. Knit Cardigan, shoes and socks, Charlotte’s own