Charmaine Caire, illustrator, photographer and pop artist, is a creator of worlds composed of found objects, usurped scenes of multi-media vignettes and toys which often “humorously evoke the affluence and plastic culture of suburbia while addressing a variety of topics from current events.
With these contrived artificial communities, she produces fantastic colored prints pushing the potential of photography past two dimensions. She has been described as a “surreal juxtaposer”.
Charmaine was born in 1950’s Trenton, New Jersey. She was raised in post-World War 2 Levittown and graduated from Tyler School of Art. Fascinated by both the disposability and eternal life of plastic toys in the tableaus she built, Caire created both connection and dissonance. These objects combine to create a very short story or one-scene play, drawing the observer to question their own connections and role in the story.
A Pew finalist, featured in solo shows such as the Woodmere Triennial of Photography, Special Project Gallery (NYC)and Exhibit A, highlighted in the New Yorker Magazine and Camera Arts Magazine, and a fellow of the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts, to name a few of her accomplishments, Charmaine has produced four decades of “stop and think” work.
BFA, Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
2000
Pew Finalist "Works on Paper"
Leeway Foundation "Window of Opportunity" Award
1998
Art Directors Club of Philadelphia, Gold Award Winner, Illustration
2024
Capturing the Surreal, InLiquid, Philadelphia, PA
Soul/Animus-The Wedding of Eros and Psyche, Contemporary Stories, Rome, Italy
2023
Lit Brothers ‘79, National Liberty Museum, Philadelphia, PA
Slumped glass catenary arches purchased by art glass collector
Upscaling All These Years, Philadelphia Dumpster Divers, Chester County Arts Association, West Chester, PA
Members and Teaching Artists Exhibition, Main Line Art Center, Haverford, PA
2022
Re-Crafted, Found Object Art of the Philadelphia Dumpster Divers, Dupree Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Deconstructing Bowie, Freedom in Eccentricity, National Liberty Museum, Philadelphia, PA
2021
Citizen's Eye - A Kaleidoscope of Nature, Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, Philadelphia, PA
Alchemy Illuminated: The Art of Creating from Trash, The Neon Museum, Philadelphia, PA
2019
PPAC Members Exhibition, Philadelphia Photo Arts Center (Now TILT), Philadelphia, PA
2018
Found Art of the Philadelphia Dumpster Divers", Dupree Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Leeway Foundation at 25 Years, Philadelphia, PA
2017
25th Anniversary Philadelphia Dumpster Divers Exhibition, Philadelphia, PA
2015
Outsider Art, Goggle Works, Reading, PA
2013
Yellow Springs Art Show, Chester Springs Studio, Chester Springs, PAStephen Perloff, Curator
Grand Opening Show, Bazemore Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2012
Truth or Dare, Nexxus, Philadelphia, PA
Dylan Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Artificial Worlds, Peng Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2011
Isiah Zagars Magic Garden, Philadelphia, PA
2010
Lighten Up, Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts, Millville, NJ
2007
Charmaine Caire: Then and Now, Solo Show, 201 Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Spring Manifestations, Art in City Hall, Philadelphia, PA
2006
Visions of Liberty, US Constitution Center, Philadelphia, PA
Artificial Worlds, Peng Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Artificial Realities, Solo Show, Philadelphia International Airport, Terminal F, Philadelphia, PA
Art of the State: Pennsylvania 2006, The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, PA
2005
Art of the State: Pennsylvania 2005, The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, PA
In Our Own Backyard, PA Council of the Arts Fellowship Exhibition
Traveling: Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art at Johnstown, Souther Alleghenies Museum of Art at Altoona, Sharadin Art Gallery at Kutztown University, Kutztown, PA
2004
In Our own Backyard, PA Council of the Artas Fellowship Exhibition at Johnstown
Traveling: Lancaster Museum of Art, Main Line Art Center, Erie Art Museum
2003
First Triennial of Photography Exhibition, Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA
Not Just Another Reality Show, Art Mobile, Bucks County Community College, Newtown, PA
Stephen Perloff, Curator
Traveled 2003 - 2005
Mixed Bag, Salon de Amis, Yellow Springs, PA
Stephen Perloff, Juror
2001
Noveau Pop, Solo Show, Salon des Amis Gallery, Yellow Springs, PA
2000
Plastic Genome Project, Solo Show, Exhibit A Gallery, New York, NY
Featured in New Yorker Magazine
Plastic Genome Project, Solo Show, Borowsky Open Lens Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Ethical Society of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
The Animal Show, Salon des Amis Gallery, Yellow Springs, PA
The Nude Show, Salon des Amis Gallery, Yellow Springs, PA
Oh, Baby, Exhibit A, New York, NY
Doomsday: Revelations, Salon des Amis Gallery, Yellow Springs, PA
Sixth Annual Photography Show, Yellow Springs, PA
Stephen Perloff, Juror
