Charles Turnell (born 1964) is a St. Louis-based photographer who builds large images out of hundreds of small photographs. From a distance a figure, an animal, a feather or a stretch of prairie comes into view; up close it breaks into tiny pictures of flowers, plants, stamps and other subjects. Born in Belize, he describes himself as Belizean-American; his themes include memory, identity, nature, migration and spirituality.
He calls this process Ars Musiva. Combining film and digital photography with software, he crops photographs from daily life and travel into fragments chosen for color, shape and texture, arranges them and finishes the image with digital painting, producing limited-edition archival pigment prints. In his 2021 works, mannequins, statues and animals appear against fields of flowers, each representing a person. The Grass series grew from a visit to Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and studio in Oak Park, Illinois; Feathers, made from feathers found on walks near his home, draws on Native American traditions that see birds as messengers.
Turnell grew up in Belize, where National Geographic introduced him to distant landscapes and cultures, and received a Jesuit education there. In 2024 he was the first artist-in-residence at Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum in St. Louis. He showed three works at the XV Florence Biennale in October 2025, and in October 2026 the St. Louis Public Library’s Buder Branch opened his solo exhibition Stamped: The Making of America 250, built from more than 1,200 photographed postage stamps. He has also exhibited at Art Saint Louis, the St. Louis Artists’ Guild and Studio Channel Islands in Camarillo, California, where he received second best in show in 2020.
He first showed at Bruno David Gallery in the 2021 group exhibition Bilingual: Abstract & Figurative. His first solo exhibition there, See Beauty Everywhere, opened on 29 October 2022 and ran into January 2023, and in 2023 the gallery announced his book Ars Musiva. His second, Prairie & Sky (16 January – 21 February 2026), paired the Grass and Feathers series and included a gallery talk on 7 February 2026. In July 2026 a work from Stamped was shown in the gallery’s Window on Forsyth.
SELECTED WORKS
Charles Turnell ANIMA, 2025 Archival pigment dye on Arches Aquarelle Rag, mounted on Dibond sheet 45 x 30 in. (114.3 x 76.2 cm), edition of 5 + 1 AP
Charles Turnell Prairie (3), 2025 Archival pigment dye on Arches Aquarelle Rag, mounted on Dibond sheet 45 x 30 in. (114.3 x 76.2 cm), edition of 5 + 1 AP
Charles Turnell Prairie (1), 2025 Archival pigment dye on Arches Aquarelle Rag, mounted on Dibond sheet 45 x 30 in. (114.3 x 76.2 cm), edition of 5 + 1 AP
Charles Turnell Prairie (5), 2025 Archival pigment dye on Arches Aquarelle Rag, mounted on Dibond sheet 45 x 30 in. (114.3 x 76.2 cm), edition of 5 + 1 AP
Charles Turnell AXIS, 2025 Archival pigment dye on Arches Aquarelle Rag, mounted on Dibond sheet 45 x 30 in. (114.3 x 76.2 cm), edition of 5 + 1 AP
Charles Turnell Prairie (2), 2025 Archival pigment dye on Arches Aquarelle Rag, mounted on Dibond sheet 45 x 30 in. (114.3 x 76.2 cm), edition of 5 + 1 AP
Charles Turnell Prairie (4), 2025 Archival pigment dye on Arches Aquarelle Rag, mounted on Dibond sheet 45 x 30 in. (114.3 x 76.2 cm), edition of 5 + 1 AP
Charles Turnell NUMEN, 2025 Archival pigment dye on Arches Aquarelle Rag, mounted on Dibond sheet 45 x 30 in. (114.3 x 76.2 cm), edition of 5 + 1 AP
Charles Turnell SEWA, 2025 Archival pigment dye on Arches Aquarelle Rag, mounted on Dibond sheet 45 x 30 in. (114.3 x 76.2 cm), edition of 5 + 1 AP
Charles Turnell WAKAN, 2025 Archival pigment dye on Arches Aquarelle Rag, mounted on Dibond sheet 45 x 30 in. (114.3 x 76.2 cm), edition of 5 + 1 AP
Charles Turnell Feathers (11), 2025 Archival pigment dye on Arches Aquarelle Rag, mounted on Dibond sheet 45 x 30 in. (114.3 x 76.2 cm), edition of 5 + 1 AP
Charles Turnell TAKODA, 2025 Archival pigment dye on Arches Aquarelle Rag, mounted on Dibond sheet 45 x 30 in. (114.3 x 76.2 cm), edition of 5 + 1 AP
Charles Turnell Big Suit, 2021 Archival pigment dye on rag paper, mounted on board 46 x 30 in. (116.8 x 76.2 cm)
Charles Turnell Pac Man, 2021 Archival pigment dye on rag paper, mounted on board 30 x 46 in. (76.2 x 116.8 cm)
Charles Turnell Ice Man, 2021 Archival pigment dye on rag paper, mounted on board 36 x 24 in. (91.4 x 61 cm)
Charles Turnell Thinker, 2021 Archival pigment dye on rag paper, mounted on board 46 x 30 in. (116.8 x 76.2 cm)
Charles Turnell Eros Bendato, 2021 Archival pigment dye on rag paper, mounted on board 24 x 36 in. (61 x 91.4 cm)
Charles Turnell Elvis, 2021 Archival pigment dye on rag paper, mounted on board 46 x 30 in. (116.8 x 76.2 cm)
Charles Turnell White Pelican, 2021 Archival pigment dye on rag paper, mounted on board 46 x 30 in. (116.8 x 76.2 cm)
Charles Turnell Pinochio I, 2021 Archival pigment dye on rag paper, mounted on board 46 x 30 in. (116.8 x 76.2 cm)
Charles Turnell Fuerza, 2021 Archival pigment dye on rag paper, mounted on board 30 x 46 in. (76.2 x 116.8 cm)
Charles Turnell Flamingo, 2021 Archival pigment dye on rag paper, mounted on board 46 x 30 in. (116.8 x 76.2 cm)
Charles Turnell Giraffe, 2021 Archival pigment dye on rag paper, mounted on board 46 x 30 in. (116.8 x 76.2 cm)
Charles Turnell Zebra, 2021 Archival pigment dye on rag paper, mounted on board 30 x 46 in. (76.2 x 116.8 cm)
EXHIBITIONS
BRUNO DAVID GALLERY, ST. LOUIS
Prairie & Sky
Solo exhibition
16 January – 21 February 2026
BRUNO DAVID GALLERY, ST. LOUIS
See Beauty Everywhere
Solo exhibition
29 October 2022 – 14 January 2023
NEWS
SOLO EXHIBITION
Stamped: The Making of America 250
St. Louis Public Library, Buder Branch, St. Louis, October 2026
INSTALLATION
The First Furrow West: Fields of Memory in the Heartland
Window on Forsyth, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, July 2026
PUBLICATIONS
SELECTED PRESS
PRESS
10 art exhibits to catch this month
St. Louis Magazine, Christine Jackson, November 2022
PRESS
Check Out Contemporary Art at Bruno David Gallery
Riverfront Times, Jessica Rogen, December 2022