BORN: - - LONDON, 1979 - - - - - LIVES/WORKS: - - LONDON, UK - - - - - EDUCATION: - - 2000-2004 MA Royal Academy Schools, London 1996-2000 BA Hons University of West England, Bristol - - - SOLO EXHIBITIONS: - - 2009 Meliora Silentio CHARLIE SMITH london, London 2008 ‘Locus Horridus’ Charlie Smith London, London 2005 ‘Monster Island’ LUSAD Gallery, Loughborough University of Art and Design - - - SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS: 2009 Romance Derived (thecentre:MK Annual Painting Prize) thecentre:mk, Milton Keynes 2009 Saxon Schwartz Projects, London 2009 Strange Days and some Flowers Storey Gallery, Lancaster 2009 New London School (curated by Zavier Ellis & Simon Rumley) Galerie Schuster, Berlin 2008 The Sovereign European Art Prize Somerset House, London 2008 The Future Can Wait (curated by Zavier Ellis & Simon Rumley) Old Truman Brewery, London 2008 ‘Ship of fools’ Limbo Arts foundation, Margate 2008 ‘The Past is History’ Changing Role Gallery, Naples & Rome 2008 ‘Icon’ Primo Alonso Gallery, London 2008 ‘New London School’ Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica, Los Angeles 2007 ‘The Future Can Wait’ Ellis & Rumley Projects, Atlantis Gallery, London 2007 ‘Fastest with the Mostest’ ‘Fastest with the Mostest’Carter and Gallagher, Mayfair, London 2007 ‘Les Fleurs Du Mal’ Primo Alonso Gallery, London (As Curator) 2007 ‘Eau Sauvage II’ Fieldgate Gallery, London 2007 ‘New London Kicks’ Soho House, New York 2006 ‘Kamminzimer’ Grieder Contemporary, Zurich 2006 ‘New Figurative Realism’ CHARLIE SMITH london, London 2006 ‘Eau Sauvage!’ Curated by Juan Bolivar ‘Eau Sauvage!’ Curated by Juan BolivarLucy Mackintosh Gallery, Lausanne, Switzerland 2006 ‘Altered Beast’ Three Colts Gallery, London. (As Curator) - - - AWARDS & RESIDENCIES: - 2006 Arts Council Exhibition Award for ‘Altered Beast’ 2005 Arts Council Exhibition Participation Award 2004 – 2005  ‘Royal Academy Schools’ / ‘Loughborough University School of Art and Design’ Artists Residency. 2004 Royal Academy Schools Rome travel Bursary. 2003 Premiums Award - The Victoria Levin Fund -- -- BIBLIOGRAPHY: -- 2008, The Future Can Wait, Exhibition Catalogue 2005, “First Scottish Art Show”, The Royal Scottish Corporation Catalogue 2005, “The Analogue Surface”, Catalogue 2003, Royal Academy, Summer Exhibition Catalogue -- -- COLLECTIONS: David Roberts, London Private collections in Italy, Switzerland, United States and United Kingdom - ARTIST STATEMENT: Stark’s practice attempts to trace how myths and legends have been used to make sense of the world and understand human nature through metaphysical investigation. It is a ceremonial exploration of the hermetic labyrinth where the dead stuff of paint becomes charged, like hosts such as bread and wine becoming sacred through ritual blessing or blood becoming paint on sacrificial totems. Stark’s practice is a 'call to the wild' and an attempt to return to a perennial wisdom of imaginative insight that potentially restores people to their own true selves. The paintings themselves are reflections of a doomed world and are metaphors for a 'utopia' that religion and politics have continually promised us and failed to deliver. They are time, labour and matter transformed into artistic value and optimistic transformations of the medium of paint, through an act of alchemy, which potentially deconstructs our notions of perception and conditioning.