Artist, Sculptor and Regenerative Designer

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Charlie Whinney is a British artist, sculptor and regenerative designer whose practice explores the relationships between people, materials, nature and the complex systems that shape our world. Working across art, sculpture, architecture, design, writing and education, he creates work that brings together material innovation, craftsmanship and a deeply holistic approach to making.

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Wood and trees are central to his practice. Over more than two decades, Charlie has developed a distinctive approach to steam-bending timber, transforming locally sourced wood into fluid, organic and architectural forms. His work explores the inherent qualities of materials, the possibilities of making and the connections between natural processes and human creativity. His sculptures and installations have been commissioned and exhibited internationally, including in the UK, Europe, Japan, Singapore, China and the USA.

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Notable projects include a large-scale DNA sculpture at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge; BBC Garden of Hope, created with garden designer Arit Anderson for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show; Sycamore Gap: Coming Home, responding to the loss of the iconic Northumberland tree; and the 50-metre Lost Spells Otter sculpture. His work ranges from intimate objects and furniture to ambitious public installations, often bringing art into unexpected relationships with architecture, landscape and place.

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At the heart of Charlie's practice is a systems-based philosophy: holistic thinking and holistic doing. Rather than treating objects, materials or places in isolation, he considers the wider relationships and exchanges in which they participate. His approach is grounded in observing, interacting, adapting and repeating — learning from nature, understanding the inherent qualities of materials and seeking the right amount of intervention. He is interested in making meaningful exchanges with the world rather than simply taking from it, creating work that contributes positively to the systems around it.

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This philosophy has evolved over more than twenty years and now finds a particular expression in sixixis, a holistic design ethos and collection conceived by Charlie in 2002. Re-emerging in 2026 as sixixis.world, it brings together objects, ideas and participatory ways of making that explore beauty, connection, resourcefulness and regeneration. New work includes the Discus Lights, which can be bought or made in collaboration with Charlie, the Windy Day Bench, designed to be made when surplus wind energy is available, and a bed conceived to incorporate substantial food storage as an expression of everyday resilience.

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Alongside his studio practice, Charlie is developing School of Methods, an initiative exploring how practical knowledge, heritage skills and contemporary methods can restore human resilience, resourcefulness and agency. Through What's Love Got to Do With It?, a participatory travelling exhibition, he explores how seemingly small individual actions accumulate into wider collective consequences, particularly in relation to climate change and conflict. His forthcoming solo exhibition and accompanying book, Present Spaces, explore ideas around time, space, information, reality and the interconnected nature of existence.

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Having studied at Falmouth College of Arts and Central Saint Martins, Charlie has continued to develop his thinking through practice, research and collaboration, completing an MA in Regenerative Design at Central Saint Martins. His studio is based in a converted stone barn on the edge of ancient woodland in the Lake District National Park.

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Across all aspects of his work, Charlie is interested in how art and design can help us see the world differently: stepping back to understand the bigger picture, looking closely at the things around us, recognising the connections between them and discovering new possibilities for a more beautiful, resourceful and regenerative future.