Artist Bio
Charlie Serotoff is a textile artist based in New York City. Since beginning his exploration of textile art in late 2023, Serotoff has developed a practice centered on transforming personal emotional experiences into tactile, visual narratives through hand-tufted rugs.
Entirely self-taught, Serotoff’s partial color blindness plays a key role in shaping his bold and distinctive palette. By selecting yarns based on contrast and visual impact rather than specific hues, he creates dynamic color relationships that heighten the emotional resonance of each piece.
His work has been featured in several solo exhibitions, including Hangin' by a Thread at Helm Contemporary (March 2025), Rugs of Reflection at Columbus Circle (May 2025), and Cathartic Connection at Gracie Mansion (June–August 2025).
Balancing both analytical and creative instincts, Serotoff works in digital product management by day. His textile art practice offers a deeply fulfilling creative outlet—one that bridges intellect and emotion in equal measure.
My work explores the emotional complexity of being human—especially the kinds of feelings that don't have clear names. I'm drawn to the subtle, often contradictory reactions we have to memory, connection, disconnection, and the stories we tell ourselves. Emotions like shame, longing, disorientation, or quiet clarity—the ones that live in the body before we can articulate them.
What began as a way to process personal transformation has evolved into a practice of making the invisible visible. Each piece I create is rooted in real emotional experiences, translating concepts from my mental health journey into visual form through hand-tufted rugs. The softness of the textile medium makes challenging psychological concepts more approachable—the texture invites people to lean in rather than turn away.
Through designing, tufting, gluing, and carving, I spend 20 to 30 hours with each piece, finding that the meditative process offers as much clarity and meaning as the finished work. My background in software development and interests in science, mental health, sociology, and systems thinking inform my approach, whether through structured patterns or organic forms.
These rugs are attempts to translate thoughts into form, to create small moments of recognition where someone might feel seen, understood, or just a little less alone. In a world where complex feelings often resist language, I offer texture, color, and form as alternative vocabularies for the human experience.