Biography
In 1986 Charles Durer moved from Trenton, New Jersey to London, England. During a trip to the University of Arts in Berlin, Germany he sat on a bench and contemplated applying to this school. That moment of contemplation lasted about one year when at a coffee shop in London he met a group of students from the University of Arts London. They encouraged him to apply but a student from the Royal College of Art who happened to overhear the conversation said that he should apply at the Royal College of Art because placement opportunities and connections to commercial galleries after graduation was more significant. His application to the Royal College of Art and University of London were denied.
Set astray for two years with a few local exhibitions he returned to the states. Across the street from Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut he was eating a sandwich at a small deli when a French student, Amélie, walked in and ordered the same sandwich and sat next to him. This was an inspirational moment. After their conversation and discussing her disillusionment with Yale’s quality of education she convinced him to fly to France with her in 1994. There he walked through the Sorbonne University campus where he applied, attended one semester, and was expelled for creating installations that were deemed unfavorable and indignant to the institution.
That conflict caught the attention of a New York art dealer that led to him being offered an opportunity to show at the 1994 Venice Biennale. He immediately refused on grounds of being offered 20,000 € to reconfigure an exhibition proposal to be more “aligned with public values of acceptable display”. His refusal impressed some well-known international galleries who periodically show his work that rarely sells. His work is not in any known public or private collections because patrons find him difficult to work with. His inability to articulate his installation process negated his ever receiving an award, grant, or commission and he has never been reviewed in any art related publications. His last attempt at an interview with Art in America was a complete debacle as he was constantly misquoted and his work interpreted as neoneodadagothic. He now lives in Littleton, Colorado and works from a basement studio and shows at Pirate Contemporary Art in Lakewood, Colorado, an artist run space and other venues throughout the Denver area.
Education
1994 Walked
through Sorbonne
University, Paris, France
1992 Had lunch near Yale
University, New Haven, Connecticut
1990 Sat on a bench at the Royal
College of Art, London, England
1987 Met some people at the University of Arts London, England
1986 Sat in a courtyard at the University of Arts Berlin, Germany
Exhibitions
2026
One Of These Drawings Is Pretty Good, Meirs Gallery, New York, NY
Some Paintings Hung Crooked, Karma, New York ,NY
Don't Like Where This Is Going, Greene Naftali Gallery, New York, NY
Glad You Found The Place, Pirate Contemporary Art, Lakewood, CO
2025
Here's An Idea, That Did Not Work, Sammlung Friedrichshof, Burgenland, Austria
Last Ditch Effort, Pace Gallery, New York, NY
Find The Drawing, Hannah Hoffman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
A Real Mess, But It Works, Pirate Contemporary Art, Lakewood, CO
Some Drawings That I Started But Never Finished, Luhring Augustine, New York, NY
Really, I Do Not Get It, Anton Kern Gallery, New York, NY
Looks Like A Bomb Went Off, Emily Sundblad, Jamian Juliano-Villani', Nice, France
Dropping Framed Drawings Off The Building, West Street Gallery, New York, NY
2024
Some Okay Paintings But Better Drawings, Fondazione Iris, Bassano in Teverina, Italy
Smash The Crap Out Of It, Hauser & Wirth, New York, NY
Stuff On A Wall, No Apologizes, The Maria Leuff Foundation, Columbia County, NY
Drawings Taped Under A Table, Nahmad Contemporary, New York NY
2023
Hide The Art, MASI Lugano, Lugano, Switzerland
Travel Drawings That Required Little Travel, Hauser & Wirth, Los Angeles, CA
The Back Of Framed Drawings, Nahmad Contemporary, New York, NY
The Closed Door Show, No One Admitted, Pirate Contemporary Art, Lakewood, CO
2022
Is This The Show?, Q Contemporary, Budapest, Hungary
Pictures Dropped From This High, Long Museum West Bund, Shanghai, China
Untitled For Your Confusion, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich, Switzerland
Plan Is No Plan, Emily Sundblad, Jamian Juliano-Villani', Nice, France
Let’s Make A Deal, No Deal, Greene Naftali Gallery, New York, NY
Art On A Budget, Galerie Allen, Paris, France
The Storage Closet Show, Huntar Dunbar Projects, New York, NY
That’s Insane, Why Would He Do That?, Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland
2021
Not A Money Maker, Gagosian, New York, NY
Places I’ve Been, Things I’ve Seen and Done, Fergus McCaffrey, Tokyo, Japan
Not Following The Script, The Hole Gallery, New York, NY
When Does He Hang The Show?, Jerwood Gallery, United Kingdom
Horribly Lit And Still Made A Sale, Pace Gallery, New York NY
2020
Drawings For The Closet, Hauser & Wirth, Zürich, Switzerland
Pictures Not For Sale, Sean Kelly, New York NY
New Business Model: Give It Away, Arsenal Contemporary, New York, NY
Taping Pictures To The Wall, Karma, New York ,NY
2019
What Is This Show Called Again?, Agora Gallery, New York, NY
Making This Shit Up As I Go, Marlborough Contemporary, New York, NY
Nude Artist, Naked Art, The Journal Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Broken Frames, Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France
2018
Italy in Twenty Drawings or Less, La Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy
Some More Pictures, Marlborough Contemporary, New York, NY
Not In Any Particular Order, Karma at Galerie Patrick Seguin, Paris, France
I Dream Of Art, Karma, Amagansett, NY
Pictures On A Floor, The Journal Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Fuck Doing It That Way, Fortnight Institute, New York, NY
New Trick, No Holes In The Wall, Romeo Gallery, New York, NY
Framed Picture Smash, Murray Guy, New York NY
2017
Buy One Get One Free (HW Despises This Show), Hauser & Wirth, Somerset, United Kingdom
Beauty and Broken Frames, Paul Kasmin, New York, NY
Art For The Bathroom, Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Some Drawings For Your Pleasure, SCHUNCK*, Heerlen, The Netherlands
A Stack Of Drawings That You Need To Shuffle Through, Beaux-arts de Paris, Paris, France
Pile Of Drawings Set On Fire, Hannah Hoffman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Zen Garden Without The Garden, Fundació Gaspar Group, Barcelona, Spain
2016
Tear It Up, C24 Gallery, New York, NY
Slow And Low Art, Malmö Konsthall, Malmö, Sweden
Sold It Then Regretted It, Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland
What A Fucking Mess, MANA Contemporary, New York, NY
Why Show This Stuff?, Meirs Gallery, New York, NY
Landscapes And A Few Unrelated Drawings, Lori Bookstein Fine Art, New York, NY
2015
Some Drawings Of Weird Objects, White Columns, New York, NY
Pictures Shown At Uneven Heights, Acquavella Galleries, New York, NY
Sprich Deutsch But Don’t Give A Scheisse, Heimatmuseum Grimmen, Grimmen, Germany
The Value Of Corners, Industry City, Brooklyn NY
Durer In The Basement, MOCA Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, FL
2014
The Idea Is I Had No Idea, Sammlung Friedrichshof, Burgenland, Austria
Pencil In Hand, Right Place, Right Time, Pace Gallery, New York, NY
Holy Crap I’m Bleeding, Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York, NY
Holy Crap I’m Cut, Luhring Augustine, New York, NY
Sharp Glass, Anton Kern Gallery, New York, NY
Who Hung This Crap?, Venus Over Manhattan, New York, NY
Ladder Love And Miss Stepped, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY
2013
Thanks For Coming, Now Get Out, Hauser & Wirth, New York NY
Done With That Conversation, Le Magasin, Grenoble, France
Raid The Storage Closet, New Museum, New York, NY
Stop Fucking Around And Buy It, West Street Gallery, New York, NY
Some Kind Of Display That Doesn’t Make Sense, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
2012
Crappy Show and Artist, Hauser & Wirth, London, United Kingdom
Burn It And Redraw It, Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL
Cleaning Up The Mess, The Journal Gallery, New York, NY
2011
Bad Lighting And No Picture Hangers, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary
Chewed Up That Drawing And Spit It Out, The Journal Gallery, New York, NY
Who Cares What You Think, New Jersey Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY
This One Is For The Critics, Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York, NY
It’s Art If I Say It’s Art, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria
Stacked and Stabbed, Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York, NY
Going Down In Flames, Zabludowicz Art Projects, London, United Kingdom
2010
Art I Did In My Twenties And Still Think Is Okay, Swiss Institute, New York, NY
Not In My Repertoire, Rebecca Camhi Gallery, Athens, Greece
Broom Closet Show, Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France
Where’s The Art, The Journal Gallery, New York, NY
Sprinkler System Malfunction Show, Le Magasin, Grenoble, France
One Good Drawing Face Down On The Floor, James Fuentes LLC, New York, NY
White Walls With Pictures Taped To It, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
2009
Torn Up And in A Pile, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich, Switzerland
Pencil In Hand, Rattlesnake In My Boot, The Chinati Foundation, Marfa, TX
I Declined A Show At Gagosian, Gagosian, New York NY
Drawings For A Buck, Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Hudson, NY
If You Don’t Like It Leave, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
Serious Shit, Literally Shit, Peres Projects, Athens, Greece
The Pierced and Bloody Show, Mireille Mosler, Ltd., New York, NY
Fall On A Sharp Pencil, Roberts & Tilton, Los Angeles, CA
2008
Didn’t Get It Right The Second Time, Institut Valencia d’Art Modern, Valencia, Spain
Can We Make A Deal, Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, NY
Give It A Second, This’ll Be Great, Haswelldiger & Co. Gallery, New York, NY
Sorting It Out Until It Came Together One Evening, Kling & Bang Gallery, Reykjavik, Iceland
Stop Asking For A Discount, It’s Insulting, Momenta Art, Brooklyn NY
Drawings Taped Under A Table, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York, NY
You Didn’t Get It The First Time, Why Now, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany
Fucking Collectors! Portrait Series, Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa, Israel
Drawings While A Little High, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Stuff Out Of The Storage Room, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich, Switzerland
2007
Glad I Made You Uncomfortable, Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France
As Deep As It Gets, CANADA, New York NY
Oh, This Sucks, New York Studio School of Painting, Drawing and Sculpture, New York, NY
2006
A Stack Of Drawings In A Box, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich, Switzerland
Drawings In Broken Frames, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Art On The Inside Of A Wall, Gallery Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria
Leaning Pictures Against A Wall, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel, Switzerland
The Theme Is No Theme, Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France
Hide The Art, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2005
I Don’t Hang Art That Way, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, NY
Bargin Bin, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, Germany
Art In Context, Who Cares, Kunsthalle St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland
Ideas That Never Panned Out, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, NY
2003
Why Is That So Much?, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich, Switzerland
Just Looking, Almine Rech Gallery, Paris, France
Where’s The Wine?, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich, Switzerland
2002
Two Works That Did Not Make The Show, Museum Het Domein, Sittard, Netherlands
Pictures Arranged With Some Sort Of Meaning In Mind, Galerie Almine Rech, Paris, France
Really?, It’s Not Straight?, White Box, New York, NY
2001
The Only Show That Was Hung Like Everything Else You See, The Deep Gallery, Paris, France
A Bad Review Is Better Than None, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich, Switzerland
I Came With An Idea But It Escaped Me, CRP Gallery, New York, NY
Someone Spilled On The Drawing, Musée d’art Contemporain de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
I Think They Invited The Wrong Artist, Centre Georges PompidoMuu – Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, France
This Show Is A Stretch, MU Art Foundation, De Witte Dame, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
2000
A Shot In The Dark And It Worked, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Günter Brus I Love You, Galerie Krobath Wimmer, Vienna, Austria
Didn’t Know It Was Suppose To Be Entertaining, American Fine Arts, New York, NY
One Nail, Twenty Drawings, Do The Math, Ernst Museum, Budapest, Hungary
Under A Blanket Screaming At Patrons (performance), San Swiss Institute, New York NY
Some Drawings and A Couple Of Paintings, Escape des Arts, Chalon-sur-Saône, France
They Actually Let Me Show That, Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA
1999
Box Of Pictures In The Basement, Parco Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Is It Archival Because My Work Is So Great, Swiss Institute, New York, NY
I Travel, I Draw, I Show It (Sometimes), Bronwyn Keenan Gallery, New York, NY
He’s A Lunatic (Code For Artist), Castle Gallery, College of New Rochelle, New York, NY
Only Showing The Back Of The Drawings, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
Landscape Drawings Not From Here, Kunsthalle Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Party Like Its 1860, Galerie Almine Rech, Paris, France
Threw Some Stuff At A Wall, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich, Switzerland
1998
Who Cares What You Did, What Are You Going To Do Now, Rebecca Camhi Gallery, Athens, Greece
Some New Stuff In The Corner, Bartok 32 Galeria, Budapest, Hungary
Scatter Shot, Stadtgalerie Schwaz, Schwaz / Tyrol, Austria
No Opening, Charlottenborg Exhibition Hall, Copenhagen, Denmark
Made A Mess, The Big Cleanup, Kunsthalle Wein, Vienna, Austria
Autobahn Wreck, Kunsthalle, Nuremburg, Germany
Brink Of Destruction, Tax Deduction, Casey Kaplan, New York, NY
1997
Don’t Ask Me Again, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich, Switzerland
Used Color, Sold It For More, Bloom Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Subjective Value, Subjective Opinion, Andreas Binder Gallery, Munich, Germany
More Than One Reason, But I Don’t Care To Share, White Columns, New York, NY
1996
How Much? How Much Do You Have In Your Pocket?, Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery, Wesleyan University, Middletown CT
Non-Political, Non-Social, Non-Religious, Non-Sense Safe Art Show, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston MA
Unititled Means, Figure It Out, Galerie Jousse Seguin, Paris, France
Stopped Following The Script, New Museum, New York, NY
1995
A Lot Of Variables, But One Interpretation, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich, Switzerland
Bacon Would Love This, Interim Art, London, England
Some Temples And Other Old Crap, Rebecca Camhi Gallery, Athens, Greece
Must Be Doing Something Wrong To Be In A Museum, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT
You Weren’t Invited But You Hung A Piece Anyhow, Pat Hearn Gallery, New York, NY
1994
Now We’re Cook’in, Andrea Rosen Gallery, Shower’, New York, NY
Glad I Had This Show, Thomas Nordanstad Gallery, New York, NY
