“I want my work to feel both opulent and raw — existing in harmony. By juxtaposing discarded materials with ones more traditionally beautiful, the overlooked and discarded are given a new lease on life." 

— Charlie Nesi

Charlie Nesi [New York, 1987] is a New York native who has lived and worked in Mexico City for nearly a decade. His practice is deeply shaped by the physicality of urban transformation and the materials that define societal change. For Nesi, materials act as metaphors, reflecting value systems where what is discarded reveals our collective priorities. Living and working in Mexico City, Nesi draws endless inspiration from the city’s physical and conceptual landscape. 

Nesi’s current show, Homage, draws on the craft traditions that are integral to Mexico’s everyday workforce—sewing and welding. Nesi is pushing the boundaries of his artistic practice by working out of a rented parking garage turned studio and collaborating with a local atelier. He is giving traditionally raw and rugged materials, “a new lease on life.” Employing diverse aesthetic strategies and mediums—including sculpture, architecture, and design—Nesi explores the tensions between fluidity and stasis, Arte Povera and Minimalism, and the decayed and the pristine. He challenges aesthetic norms and critiques contemporary social structures by juxtaposing sleek, familiar shapes with rugged, unconventional forms. 

Homage is central to Nesi’s ethos —a show that balances tradition while challenging the status quo. Drawing on the themes of death, opulence, and unconventional beauty, deeply inspired by his experiences in Mexico and the recent passing of his mother, Nesi’s solo show explores the beauty found in contrast. Juxtaposing polished steel with decayed materials, he challenges traditional hierarchies of value, elevating the imperfect alongside the pristine. One highlighted piece from the show, Her, features a sculptural depiction of a vagina, embodying the themes of repurpose and rebirth. By transforming discarded materials into a symbol of creation and life, the work speaks to the generative power of new purpose, renewal and beauty. Inspired by Mexico’s cultural embrace of death, which celebrates it as a natural, vibrant part of life, Nesi reimagines decay and death as something beautiful and sacred.

Through Homage, Nesi invites you to reconsider what we deem valuable while embracing a more inclusive, nuanced perspective on beauty, impermanence, and transformation.