About the Artist

A working artist and dedicated teacher

I’m Charlotta Westergren. I’m a working artist as well as a dedicated teacher. Both of those matter immensely to me, and that should matter to you.

Students come to me looking not just for help in mastering techniques, but for another set of eyes to develop their own vision. I have been showing my artwork and teaching for over twenty years. My solo shows have been reviewed in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Art in America and the Huffington Post, and my work has been featured in Harper’s Bazaar, The New Yorker and The Paris Review.

While I’m mainly a painter, I’ve worked in all sorts of media — including installation, video and, of course, sculptural light. The chandeliers grew directly from my painting practice: the same attention to color, to the way a gloss or a matte surface holds light, and to the small, almost domestic histories carried by objects.

I started out as an architect, with a degree from Columbia, and then studied art at the Museum School in Boston. That training sits behind the chandeliers: an architect’s sense of how a form occupies a room, and a painter’s sense of how color can change the temperature of that room.

I’ve taught at the New School, the School of Visual Arts, Tufts’ Museum School (SMFA) and other programs. As a teacher I always try to highlight my students’ work — but if you want to know more about my broader practice you’re welcome to check it out at CharlottaWestergren.com or through Downtown Painting, my school for small-group and private lessons in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and the North Fork.

“I teach students to see in new ways and translate that onto canvas in a unique way for each artist.”

If you have questions about chandeliers, classes or private lessons, or anything else, don’t hesitate to get in touch — just email me at charlottawestergren@gmail.com anytime.

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