Dudgrick talks to… Charlie Welch of Lobo Del Mar Gallery
Charlie Welch is a Philadelphia based artist, photographer, and set designer. Charlie received a BFA, with a focus on photography, from Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design in Los Angeles in 1989. After graduating he moved to New York where he worked as a photo assistant for Josef Astor and David Seidner.
In 1994 he started began working in window display at Barneys, Bergdorf Goodman and Ralph Lauren. In 1998 he began assisting as a prop stylist and set designer and went solo three years later. In 2006 he moved to Barcelona to continue his art studies at Metàfora International Workshop focusing on sculpture, installation and public intervention. At the end of 2008 he returned to New York and resumed working as a prop stylist, set designer and photographer, while also putting more focus on his personal work.
Charlie also makes work under the name Sissy Boy and was part of the Queer Action Figures collective (NYC) and half of Knowsgay (with Paul Moreno). Projects have included short films, photography, limited edition stickers, t-shirts, posters and zines.
Charlie, so nice to talk with you. Can you start by telling Queer Forty about yourself and your artistic practice? Queer Forty, as you know, is geared towards queer folk over 40. How is the art scene looking for us these days?
I feel over that last ten years the queer art scene has been thriving. It seems now there are many collectives, fairs and galleries that are queer specific. There are just so many more opportunities for queer artists to show their work and to connect globally.
One of the things I love about you, Charlie, is how you provide opportunities for others. Can you tell us a little about your work with NY Queer Zine Fair in the past?
I am one of the co-founders of NYQZF along with Paul Moreno. We started in back in 2015 at the Bureau of General Services-Queer Division. It was one night after work with about a dozen artists. The initial response was great, so we planned the next one over a weekend and it more than doubled in size. I stayed on as one of the organizers until 2018. We really tried to create a diverse space for queer artists and zine makers to showcase their work and I feel we were very successful. Kel and Paul who continue to organize it are doing a fantastic job of keeping with the initial vision and expanding on it.
That’s wonderful. I hope to speak with them soon as well. I see you are working with NYQZF again in a different way. Tell us a little bit about the exhibit at Lobo Del Mar?
In 2018 Paul and I curated an exhibition at BGSQD to accompany the fair and this received a good response. This year after I launched my site, Lobo Del Mar, I approached Kel and Paul with the idea of curating on online exhibition of the fair participants. In the end I exhibited one piece of work from everyone who submitted work – I found something interesting in all the work and felt it was important to everyone.
I’d like to hear more about Lobo Del Mar in general. Where did this concept come from?
In August I started Lobo Del Mar, which is an online gallery and resource space for artists. It’s a project that I’ve had in mind for quite a few years now, but the initial idea was for it to be a physical space. Then we were on lockdown and it wasn’t possible to visit museums and galleries, so I figure it would be a good opportunity to build a space that could be accessible anywhere.
Looking at art and finding inspiration has been very beneficial for my sanity and health during these challenging times and I wanted to share that. I began the site presenting people that I know – that was the easiest thing to do to get it started. Since then I’ve been searching out artists from various collectives and on Instagram and that has been very exciting. There is a lot of amazing creativity in the world and I think especially right now.
Another very important part of this site is sharing resources about other galleries. residencies, workshops, etc., and I post a lot of external resources on Instagram
You also ran a film festival over the summer on Zoom. You showed one of my films, I’m proud to say. Tell me more about that festival.
The Stay The F*ck At Home Short Film Festival came about when my friend Emily in San Francisco and I were chatting on Zoom one afternoon. I don’t remember exactly how it came about, but we were like, “Hey, let’s make a film festival” … and then we did. We put out a call for short films and the only guideline really was not to be an offensive ass. We received so many great selections and had a lot of fun streaming the festival live though I’m definitely technically challenged but luckily this type of event is Emily’s expertise. See the films here: https://www.lobodelmar.org/stfahff
What projects are in the works now? Another film festival I hope!
My main project now is Lobo Del Mar and it’s taking up a lot of my time and I enjoy it very much, especially getting to know new work from artists all over the globe.
I’m currently having another project printed that I coordinated in May, which was a game of Exquisite Corpse. I thought I’d have about a dozen people but in the end there were over 60 participants – this was definitely a challenge to organize because it was all done via email – the results were fantastic! This is also archived online at www.lobodelmar.org/exquisite-corpse
I have an open call, my first, for Lobo Del Mar, and the theme is food. I’m excited to see what will come in. The information for that if anyone wants to submit is at www.lobodelmar.org/open-call-no1
I’m going to be participating in the 2020 Philly Zine Fest which will be similar to the NYQZF and it will be an online directory with some live workshops throughout the day on November 7. Information for that is here at www.phillyzinefest.org
I also recently was part of the launch of a project started by a good friend from college called Buy Your Friends Art. It’s a postcard subscription that highlights and supports different artists. More info here: www.buyyourfriendsart.com
Who knows, maybe another film festival will happen in the future, too.
Charlie, it there is another film festival, I want in! Where can we follow you, the gallery, and our other projects?
My personal site is www.charliewelch.com an Instagram is @charliefwelch.
My gallery is www.lobodelmar.org and the Instagram for that is @lobodelmargallery. I post a lot of updates and info about other spaces and exhibition on the Instagram and I also have a monthly newsletter that I send out which you can sign up for on the website.
Charlie, always a pleasure to talk with you.
Thank you for this opportunity!
