CHARLES CAMPBELL: Breath Portraits

Campbell describes the process of recording the breath as deeply intimate. “What’s communicated sitting in a quiet room listening to breath is extraordinary. The Breath Portraits become that experience.”

Charles Campbell is a Jamaican born multidisciplinary artist, writer and curator based on lək̓ʷəŋən territory, Victoria BC. Using sculpture, sound, installation and performance, his work pulls at the threads of time. Finding channels into the past and future Campbell reconstructs broken somatic, communal and spiritual connections, creating spaces of solace and meaning for all of us living in the wake of slavery and colonization.

Campbell’s artworks have been exhibited widely in the Caribbean, Canada and internationally, including the Havana Biennial, Cuenca Biennial and Kingston Biennial. Recent exhibitions include The Other Side of Now (Perez Art Museum Miami), How Not to Be Seen (Remai Modern), Vancouver Special (Vancouver Art Gallery), Fragments of Epic Memory (Art Gallery of Ontario) and solo exhibitions Ocean to Livity (Surrey Art Gallery, Nanaimo Art Gallery, Goldfarb Gallery) and How many colours has the sea (The Power Plant Gallery). His public art installations can be seen at the Victoria Airport, Concordia University and Royal BC Museum (2026). Campbell is the recipient of numerous grants from the Canada Council and BC Arts Council, the 2022 VIVA Award, 2020 City of Victoria Creative Builder Award and was long listed for the 2025 Sobey Art Award.