Charles Eladio Beronio

Charles Eladio Beronio, 2021
Blue pencil on gessoed canvas
48x72x1.5”
Photo courtesy of artist
$3800

An ambivalent lament of the heroic text inscribed at the base of the Columbus Monument in Manhattan.  Sometimes, perhaps often, heroes are perpetrators.

Of the causes… (Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith, 1776)
Charles Eladio Beronio, 2021
Black pencil on gessoed canvas
48x72x1.5”
Photo courtesy of artist
$3800

An ambivalent rendering of the title of Book One of Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations written in 1776, the year the United States was founded.  Smith’s work is perhaps the foundation text of American capitalism and the spirit of competition.

Cooperation… (George Jacob Holyoake, 1885)
Charles Eladio Beronio, 2023
Green pencil on gessoed canvas
60x72x1.5”
Photo by Filip Wolak
$4800

This text can be found on a bronze plaque at the Seward Park housing development on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.  It was written by the English secularist and cooperative movement leader George Jacob Holyoake in 1885.  I first encountered this text as a book reproduction of a rubbing on paper made from the bronze plaque by Will Holder.  In the spirit of the Cooperative Movement and Holder’s artwork, my version offers another opportunity to contemplate an alternative to the our economic paradigm.

Charles Eladio Beronio, 2023
Molded vinyl safety cone with ink
16x16x37“
Photo courtesy of artist
$750

This is a somewhat ambiguous combination of a text from the paper scroll of a fortune cookie applied to a safety cone.  It is perhaps an admonishment or warning, or a bit of advice and encouragement.

Picket
Charles Eladio Beronio, 2023
Scarlet dyed picket fence
18x18x24”
Photo courtesy of the artist
$750

These are companion pieces.  Cotton t-shirts are turned inside out and dyed on the front/chest section with a coil of white picket fence that is dipped in scarlet dye. Successive coils of picket fence are wrapped around each other end to end forming an expanding spiral of scarlet-tipped domestic fencing reminiscent of frontier forts and stockades.  The scarlet stained t-shirts evoke wounds and punctures.

Perforated
Charles Eladio Beronio, 2023
Scarlet dyed inside out cotton t-shirts, S-M-L-XL with aluminum wardrobe rack
57x57x29”
$60 each

These are companion pieces.  Cotton t-shirts are turned inside out and dyed on the front/chest section with a coil of white picket fence that is dipped in scarlet dye. Succesive coils of picket fence are wrapped around each other end to end forming an expanding spiral of scarlet-tipped domestic fencing reminiscent of frontier forts and stockades.  The scarlet stained t-shirts evoke wounds and punctures.

Stay Up
Charles Eladio Beronio, 2023
Wood paddle with carved and burned text
6x71x1”
Photo by Filip Wolak
SOLD
Other versions are available
contact us if interested

This is a common vernacular/slang expression that is often spoken as a salutation upon one’s departure.  It is said to originate as a term of encouragement amongst graffiti writers for their work to have a lasting presence before being buffed and painted over.  My version as it is carved in a canoe paddle is hopeful and optimistic, perhaps a wish to keep one’s “head above water.”  Stay up is also reminiscent of “Stay Gold” spoken amongst the characters in the film and book The Outsiders.

Search Party
Charles Eladio Beronio, 2023
Milk crates, construction adhesive, railroad lanterns
Variable dimensions
Photo by Filip Wolak
$750-950

This is a new series of sculptures, comprised of stacked and arranged milk crates combined with various retail consumer goods, lanterns, and traffic barricade lights.  These pieces are a bit of a mash-up with many possibilities for various arrangement, evoking viral milk crate challenges with slim chances of success, built in failure, and imminent injury.

Search Party is a grouping of several stacks with electric versions of oil railroad lanterns that allude to something or someone that is missing, often depicted in Western films and Hollywood depictions of American frontier and pioneer experience.

Beacon
Charles Eladio Beronio, 2023
Milk crates, construction adhesive, barricade light, beautician’s practice hand
13x13x66”
Photo by Filip Wolak
$1150

This is a new series of sculptures, comprised of stacked and arranged milk crates combined with various retail consumer goods, lanterns, and traffic barricade lights.  These pieces are a bit of a mash-up with many possibilities for various arrangement, evoking viral milk crate challenges with slim chances of success, built in failure, and imminent injury.

Beacon is a foreboding and somewhat ominous single stack topped by a flashing barricade light, with a dark-complexioned beautician’s practice hand protruding from within the stack of crates.

Untitled
Charles Eladio Beronio, 2023
Milk crates, construction adhesive, polyester flag
16x16x60”
Photo by Filip Wolak
$950

this is a new series of sculptures, comprised of stacked and arranged milk crates combined with various retail consumer goods, lanterns, and traffic barricade lights.  These pieces are a bit of a mash-up with many possibilities for various arrangement, evoking viral milk crate challenges with slim chances of success, built in failure, and imminent injury.

Untitled is a single stack of crates secured to a moving dolly with cable ties, with a crumpled American flag encased within the top crate; an irreverent arrangement of restraint and incarceration.