Artist Profile: Sandra Charles

Sandra Charles is a Louisville-based artist who began her career in batik fiber work before returning for her B.F.A. from the University of Louisville. Since then, she has focused on figurative painting that depicts exclusively Black women. In her own words: “Each painting focuses on the expressions that represent our history, expectations, self image and the essence that lies behind the facade of society’s perceptions. My paintings attempt to capture the removal of the hegemonic veil which covers the struggle between self and the perceived social order.”

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2.12.22

A middle aged woman with a medium dark skin tone and shoulder length dark curly hair, smiles in front of and to the right of a larger than life portrait painting of a figure dressed ornately with many pieces of jewelry and holding a spear in one hand.

Sandra Charles

A portrait painting of an older woman with medium dark skin tone and long gray dreadlocks, who is smiling gently and is seated in front of a striped black and yellow background, and tightly holds a package or document of some kind. She is wearing a kind of patterned quilt with many geometries and using warm colors like oranges, yellows, reds, blacks and greens.

A portrait painting of an older woman with medium dark skin tone and long gray dreadlocks, who is smiling gently and is seated in front of a striped black and yellow background, and tightly holds a package or document of some kind. She is wearing a kind of patterned quilt with many geometries and using warm colors like oranges, yellows, reds, blacks and greens.

The Legacy, oil on canvas

A portrait painting of a middle aged woman with a medium dark skin tone and long braided hair, who is wearing a knee length white dress with a sparse black geometric pattern, and is standing with her left hand hand gently over her heart, and is in front an exterior painted wall on the sidewalk.

A portrait painting of a middle aged woman with a medium dark skin tone and long braided hair, who is wearing a knee length white dress with a sparse black geometric pattern, and is standing with her left hand hand gently over her heart, and is in front an exterior painted wall on the sidewalk.

Your Walls, An Artist and Venice, oil on canvas.

A portrait painting of a middle aged woman with medium a medium dark skin tone and a medium length dark afro hair, who is wearing a large orange and red scarf over a dark sweater and black jeans, standing with a hand on her hip and in the older holds a document to the side. She stands in front of a tiled or painted brick wall that is mostly alternating blacks, yellows, and greens, but also reads the words, “Right, Left.”

My Vote, oil on canvas