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CHARRETTE VAN EEKELEN – Acts of Love – 21 April-15 May 2026


Charrette van Eekelen’s paintings are fabrications: scissored, stitched and painted to create persuasive descriptions of objects and space. Colours and textures are found and combined. Freehand embroidery draws lines, paint undulates surfaces. Close inspection reveals silkiness, rough weave, sheen and transparency. Wool and velvet contrast with the openness net and materiality produces the illusion of light and shadow. These tactile works are considered in the conception and her choice of subject for this exhibition is specific:

‘This body of work, ‘Acts of Love,’ comes from moments when an item catches my eye and I witness an act of love, from and for someone, somewhere along the way. When I see that, I feel it as well—like the child’s shoe sitting on a rock that I noticed while taking my dog for a walk. It was placed there by some kind soul, hoping, no doubt, that the owner of the shoe would come back and claim it, thus creating a full circle of connection. Or seeing a dog bowl that somebody has placed out because they care about the dogs that walk by. Simple things. I think that’s what acts of love are: hope, with an element of surprise, mixed with instinctual goodness.‘

ARTIST TALK: Sat 9 May, 11am

Lets Keep Them Anyway, by Charrette van Eekelen, 2025, velvet, tulle, fabrics, paint, and thread, 635 x 615mm framed, $2800 Pretty Brave, by Charrette van Eekelen, 2025, velvet, taffeta, fabrics, paint, and thread, 635 x 615mm framed, $2800 Somewhere in There, by Charrette van Eekelen,2025, NZ wool blanket, velvet, taffeta, fabrics, paint, and thread, 635 x 615mm framed, $2800
For All Dogs, by Charrette van Eekelen, 2025, NZ wool blanket, fabrics, paint, and thread, 380 x 380mm framed, $1600 Golden Hour, by Charrette van Eekelen, 2025, NZ wool blanket, velvet, taffeta, fabrics, paint, and thread 380 x 380mm framed, $1600 Hello Girls, by Charrette van Eekelen, 2026, NZ wool blanket, velvet, tulle, fabrics, paint, and thread, 380 x 380mm framed, (SOLD) On The Way, by Charrette van Eekelen, 2025, velvet, tulle, velour, fabrics, paint, and thread, 380 x 380mm framed, $1600 Poker Night, Charrette van Eekelen, 2025, NZ wool blanket, tulle, taffeta, fabrics, paint and thread, 380 x 380mm framed, $1600 Resting, by Charrette van Eekelen, 2025, velvet, tulle, paint and thread, 380 x 380mm framed, $1600 Surf Life Saving, by Charrette van Eekelen, 2025, velvet, glitter fabric, tafetta, paint and thread, 380 x 380mm framed, $1600 Today’s Special, by Charrette van Eekelen, 2026, NZ wool blanket, velvet, fabrics, paint and thread, 380 x 380mm, $1600

Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Charrette van Eekelen grew up in NYC and then lived in Northeast USA. She travelled extensively through Europe, Asia, North and South America before moving to New Zealand, where she lives and works as an artist in Christchurch. Charrette grew up in a creative family. Her father was an architect and urban planner, her mother a garden designer, one brother sculpts, the other is a woodworker, her sister is a weaver and her grandmother made quilts. In 1985 she completed a BFA in painting and sculpture at Bennington College, Vermont, USA and in 2023 she graduated from University of Canterbury, School of Fine Arts with a Masters in Painting. Since then she has participated regularly in group and solo exhibitions.