Charlie Wetzel

media release: The Wisconsin Union Directorate (WUD) Art Committee presents “Beginnings in Triptych,” an art exhibition by Charlie Wetzel. This  exhibition will be on display in the Main Gallery at the Memorial Union from Dec. 2, 2022 through Jan. 27, 2023. There will be an opening reception on Dec. 2 from 6-8 p.m. in the Main Gallery of Memorial Union.

The images in “Beginnings in Triptych” are a curated selection from Wetzel’s long form photo essay Me and This Place, which tracks their medical gender affirmation in the visual context of North Cascades National Park. The exhibition poses themes of precarity and growth by juxtaposing the human figure within this setting.

Wetzel is an American artist who uses photography, sculpture and performance to explore transgender ontology. Her work celebrates human bodies and it explores how they collide with womanhood, the United States' medical system, the climate crisis and women's place in art history.

Wetzel’s work responds to American culture and politics surrounding trans identity. "There is a narrative that trans womanhood is a shameful and deviant form of femininity." Her honest and provocative portraits are designed to counter that narrative. By depicting transgender experience in work that is historically grounded, she portrays how trans ways of being make logical and aesthetic sense and belong in contemporary society.

Wetzel is an undergraduate student at Lawrence University. This year, she received 2nd place for a single image in the LensCulture Art Photography Awards in London. This year she also received an artist-in-the-studio residency grant from the John Michael Kohler Art Center in Sheboygan. Their work has been exhibited in Appleton, Milwaukee and West Bend.