Who Makes It Happen: Charlie Mabry
- May 22
- 6 min read
Introducing the one! The only! Charles Edward Mabry. Better known ‘round here as Charlie.
He’s Denali’s resident ceramics lead. He’s also been carrying the metal shop (blow)torch both on and off-site.
When Charlie’s given a job, you can count on him to execute at the same level as his wit – with extreme skill. He makes it look easy. (And he makes the rest of us laugh while he’s at it.)
Hailing from Alabama, Charlie arrived in the Big Easy via his “parasitic relationship” with Emily Brannan (his poetic description). He came searching for an art-related paycheck because, like many of the Denali crew, Charlie is first and foremost an artist.
Well, he’s been getting his paychecks. But he’s also been getting the chance to work on projects that allow him the kind of creative freedom he gets amped about.
THE WORK: "A lot of grinding, some welding, a lot of carrying things around, that sort of thing."
When asked what exactly he does here at Denali, Charlie describes it best: "I just work everywhere. So wherever I'm needed."
But what he does here is so much more than that.
Mr. Mabry has worked on a variety of projects since starting at Denali back in 2024. Everything from fabricating steel roll cages for giant moulds of wildlife scat, to cutting apart command module replicas in the middle of a Texas winter (keep reading for more about that one).
And yes, it’s true. He does what he’s told here at Denali.
But now and then, a project comes along that allows him the opportunity to flex his skills and creativity. Most notably, H. Grace Boyle’s Flower Tree, "She gave me a lot of leeway to just have fun making it."
When an artist comes to us with an artwork idea, it can vary greatly how much say we get to have in its execution. In this case, "There was a lot of us responding to each other's ideas”, Charlie recalls. And that kind of collaboration makes for a truly enjoyable fabrication job.
And when the OG of the metal shop, Abe Geasland, has kind words about your work, you know you’re doing something right: "I think your contribution to that piece was almost entirely the reason it was as successful as it was." Abe tells Charlie, "It was a very collaborative effort — with you providing most of the technical skill, but also a vision of your own."
Great job, Charlie.
ON THE ROAD: “Hey boy, you ever seen anybody use an oxy acetylene torch?”
Yep. Charlie’s swoon-worthy torch skills certainly came in handy when five of us hit the road back in January. Luckily enough, he’s one of the few crew members Abe can tolerate riding shotgun in the box truck with him for any length of time. The two of them pulled up the rear while Dan, Emily, and Robyn were Fear and Loathin’ it in the flatbed towing a 4500lbs steel cage.
After thanking the road trip gods for our safe arrival in Seabrook, Texas, Charlie’s torching acumen was most unusually tested. It was definitely the first – and probably the last – time any of us have ever seen a six-foot-two ‘bama boy cut a 50+-year-old command module replica whilst straddling a ladder.
Just another Denali day.
THE ARTIST
When you're introduced to Charlie's artistic practice, you start to see another side of him.
His sculptural work is figurative – animal-human hybrids, clay forms that blur the line between nature and culture, the ancient and the imagined. In his own words: "I utilize the imagery of natural and historical forms combined with elements of literature, science fiction, and fantasy to convey a possible reality. My principal medium is clay because of both its workability and many associations that strengthen the ideas in my work — such as its connections to utility, domesticity, and artifacts of our most distant past."
Graduating from Auburn University in 2011 with a BFA in ceramics, Charlie spent the better part of a decade working in and running ceramic studios: an assistantship at the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center in Atlanta, then teaching and serving as Assistant Director at The Potters of Rockybrook Studio in Opelika, Alabama, before landing as Director of Ceramics at the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi from 2017 to 2022. He did a stint in manufacturing, too – welding paid better, he'll tell you plainly – before Emily lured him over to Denali. "She came over here first. I was like, give me a job there!"
All of that experience – the studio work, the teaching, the time spent problem-solving with artists of every level – feeds directly into what he brings here. "When you're working on your own work, you're constantly solving problems. And that's definitely the case with all of the projects here. So many of them are novel.. things that we haven't done before…that you're constantly having to creatively work through ideas."
This is the heart of what we do at Denali. And it's the kind of work that excites Charlie most. "I especially like the projects where it's kind of more open-ended – here's the image, here's the design. A lot of it is left up to that sort of visual problem solving."
He's a self-described admirer of Frank Fleming, an Alabama sculptor he feels doesn't get nearly enough attention outside the state. "I like to make Frank Fleming knockoffs. He was an Alabama sculptor who is famous in Alabama, but people outside don't know. And I always think it's really strange, because his work is so incredible." He also cites ceramic artist Beth Cavener Stichter and, perhaps most revealingly, Lee Bontecou, whose work he struggles to describe: "There's something very... I don't think spiritual is the right word, but like... serious... timeless. Something about it is transcendent."
That instinct for the timeless, the ineffable, the thing that's hard to put into words – you could say this is what Charlie brings to a fabrication job.
WHAT'S NEXT: Going home to teach “real artists”
This edition of Who Makes It Happen has a bittersweet (and somewhat mysterious) end. Our boy Charlie is leaving us for four and a half months to do… well, quite a few things, potentially.
Will he be on an artist residency? Maybe.
Is he leaving to create public art? Quite possibly.
What he is definitely going to do, in his hometown of Dothan, Alabama, is teach ceramics alongside his sister, a painter who, in Charlie's words, is "taking a year off to expand her art career." He'll be helping run summer camps and adult classes, and lending a hand getting the business side of her practice more buttoned up (art handling, packaging, the kind of professional infrastructure that Denali has given Charlie a real education in). He's also going home to spend some time with his parents and help them with a house move. It's a full plate.
And if you know Charlie, the teaching part will undoubtedly be a highlight. "Young children between the ages of five and seven are the most inspiring to work with. They're real artists. I think they're the most pure sort of expression." It's the lack of self-consciousness that gets him. "Self-awareness, self-consciousness – they just don't have it yet. They're just expressive."
Oh, and somewhere in all of that, he's planning to make his own work. Large-scale sculptural work, specifically. The kind he hasn't had the bandwidth to pursue here. He's been calling it a sabbatical. "I'll be able to work on things every day," he says, like someone who has been waiting a while to say it.
Charlie has been with Denali for two years. In that time, he's brought a level of skill, creative instinct, and dry humor that's made him indispensable – and pretty damn irreplaceable, frankly. We're glad he's not gone forever. And we're glad he's going to go do something that lights him up, while honoring his own, timeless words of wisdom: "Never stop learning."
We'll be here when you get back, Charlie. Denali will not be the same without you. Neither will the road.
Want to see more of Charlie's artwork? Click here.
And follow along with him on Instagram.
Got a project you'd like Charlie's expertise for? Get in touch. (Yes, he's leaving for a while, but timing is everything. Perhaps you're reading this six months from now. Charlie - we sure as heck hope you're back with us by then!)
This post is part of our Shop Talk series, where we dig into all things art fabrication, installation, transport, and everything else we do here at Denali. Want more behind-the-scenes looks like this delivered to your inbox? Join our mailing list.
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