THE FIFTH VESSEL
2025 Exhibition | Transformer Station, Cleveland Museum of Art
FRONT International: Art Futures Fellowship
The Fifth Vessel is a monumental sculptural inquiry into the physical form as a reliquary for discernment. In this landmark solo exhibition—the culmination of the FRONT Art Futures Fellowship—Charmaine Spencer presents a sophisticated fusion of raw geological matter and readily accessible organic materials. The collection navigates the dual pathways of human intellect: the pursuit of collective wisdom versus the architecture of systemic corruption.
Hosted by the Cleveland Museum of Art at the Transformer Station, this body of work establishes a sanctuary for intangible values—honor, integrity, and the sacred. By transforming humble, foundational elements into structures of immense presence, Spencer positions the vessel as a symbolic architecture for human accountability.
Select works from the Fifth Vessel and featured exhibitions below are held in private collections; others remain available for acquisition. For inquiries regarding provenance, private viewings, or current availability, please contact the studio directly.
The Sentinel Series
A contemporary reliquary synthesizing ancient Canopic traditions with cardinal philosophies. These four monumental sentinels serve as a sanctuary designed to safeguard the essence of the sacred during times of profound global transition.
Falcon | West | Water: Introspection and Transition [PLACED: Private Collection]
Human | South | Fire: Passion and Youth
Baboon | North | Earth: Wisdom and Endurance
Jackal | East | Air: New Beginnings and Success
Wisdom and Asset
Suspended Sculpture
A testament to ancestral knowledge as a primary driver of evolution. Utilizing red clay—a reference to African traditions of ochre-based spiritual honoring—the work is interwoven with a cartography of lost-wax filigree gold beads. These "assets" redefine wealth not as material gain, but as the spiritual inheritance required to navigate modernity.
Bastions Subverted
Dual-Component Installation
This monumental installation serves as the collection’s definitive statement on the architecture of human connection and accountability.
The Core Vessel: Bastion
A primordial sanctuary of black clay and nutrient-dense "black gold" (earthworm castings). The interior houses an archive of shredded particulates illuminated by gold leaf, symbolizing the inherent value of a unified populace.
The Weighted Form: Subversion
Suspended in opposition, this dense, calculated form symbolizes the "mining" of human value. Bound by heavy gold-finished chains, it represents the weaponization of cherished values—where the sacred is transformed into shackles under systemic pressure.
FROM GRASS TO ROOT
2022 Solo Exhibition | The Sculpture Center, Cleveland
From Grass to Root is a foundational inquiry into the relationship between material transformation and ancestral memory. This solo exhibition marked a definitive moment in Spencer’s practice, utilizing organic fibers, clays, and reclaimed elements to explore the "growth" of a sculptural narrative from the ground up.
The works within this collection are defined by their internal architecture—repositories for a shared history that transitions from static objects into active vessels. This grassrootsinquiry requires looking back at the foundational knowledge of the past to understand the evolution of the future. By integrating physical elements with intangible intentions, the series examines the role of the artist as a conduit for restoration, creating a tether between the modern landscape and the deep lineage of ancestry that connects all living things. These sculptures recognize that we are all rooted in the same soil that sustains us.
Fashioned after African spirit vessels, these works are initiated as containers for ritual and ceremony. Fire is distinguished by repurposed nails that pierce the surface, drawing a direct lineage to the Nkisi or “power figures” of the Kongo. Earth is defined by its use of Otjize (red ochre) and reed grass, symbolizing the "guardian" of the landscape. Both sculptures function as repositories for ancestral communication—housing a community’s letters and serving as a spiritual home for guidance and protection.
Fire
Exhibition History:
Ohio Now: State of Nature, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati (2025)
From Grass to Root (Solo Exhibition), Cleveland (2022)
Earth
Exhibition History:
PRIZM Art Fair, Art Basel Miami Beach (2024)
From Grass to Root (Solo Exhibition), Cleveland (2022)
Selected Exhibition History:
The Sculpture Center | Cleveland Botanical Garden
Journey and Roots explores the complex tension between animate and inanimate attachments. The work investigates the duality of evolution: the necessity for stabilityversus the inevitability of growth. By binding raw, foundational materials with disciplined precision, the sculpture acts as a reliquary for the wisdom we carry—and the obligation to pass that knowledge forward.
This body of work reflects a "grassroots" philosophy of making: looking back to ancestral roots to inform the progression of the journey ahead. It is a testament to the discipline required to learn and the collective will to continue, recognizing that our individual progress is inseparable from the wisdom of those who came before us.
Journey
Exhibition History:
From Grass to Root (Solo Exhibition), The Sculpture Center 2022
New Growth (Solo Exhibition), Cleveland Botanical Garden 2022
Roots
Exhibition History:
New Growth (Solo Exhibition),
Cleveland Botanical Garden 2022
