Charlotte Hailstone

(b. 1994, Baltimore) is a New York-based painter and curator whose work explores color, perception, and spatial tension. With a background in graphic design, her practice is built on formal clarity through composition, color theory, and the translation of spatial experience onto a flat surface. Her work centers on how color structures experience, using calibrated palettes and optical tension to create paintings that operate between image and object and resist a stable sense of foreground or depth.

Hailstone’s paintings began as an extension of sculpture. Early in her practice she created small resin and acrylic objects intended for large-scale fabrication, but spatial limitations in her studio led her to translate these forms into paint. What began as a practical pivot quickly expanded into a conceptual one. By intentionally flattening forms that were designed to exist in three dimensions, Hailstone engages the slippage between 3D and 2D, reflecting how easily dimensional expectations collapse in contemporary visual culture. The results are paintings that emulate the presence of objects while intentionally denying their physicality.

Her surfaces build layered color structures that generate optical drift and controlled distortion. Drawing from Color Field painting and the precision of design, Hailstone works with sharp geometries, transparency, and calibrated color relationships that test the stability of the surface. In her Shattered Glass series, she translates the reflective qualities of plexiglass into paint, using luminosity and shifting hue to evoke suspended depth and spatial confusion.

Influenced by Op Art, Josef Albers’ color studies, and the Light and Space movement, Hailstone explores how perception can be manipulated through surface, hue, and the collapse of expected spatial cues. Her palettes draw from both pop culture and art history, filtered through a diaristic lens that gives each work a coded personal resonance.

Hailstone received her BFA in Communication Design from Parsons School of Design. Raised in Baltimore, she was introduced early to conservation and material investigation through her father’s work in the decorative arts department at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

In the past year, Hailstone’s work has been featured in exhibitions at Fleiss-Vallois, The Hole, Marinaro Gallery, Ruby Dakota Gallery, Harper’s, 81 Leonard Gallery, Ryan Hastings Gallery, and Salon 21, as well as at Future Fairs in New York.

In addition to her studio practice, Hailstone is a curator at Loft Projects, a curatorial platform that produces large-scale group exhibitions spotlighting emerging and mid-career artists. By fostering conversations across diverse practices, Loft Projects helps connect rising talent with new collectors, galleries, and established artists, expanding their visibility within the contemporary art world.