Alexandra Carter

My work is an exploration of the psyche in the form of painting and drawing influenced by print media, collage, and performance. While riffing on themes of gender, fairytale, and masquerade, I play with the relationship between control and catharsis, visualizing the body coming out of itself, exposing not only one’s guts but one’s internal state--one’s emotions, one’s craziness--in a way that can seem both pleasurable and painful. I draw from my personal background (especially my origins on a cranberry farm in New England) as well as literature, mythology, dance, and costume. My subject matter derives from a large archive of images which I collect and also create from my own performances. Recent interests include expressionist dance movements (specifically German Neuer Tanz and Japanese Butoh), mythological human-animal hybrids, and the words of surrealist artist Unica Zürn. I use alternative media and surfaces to emphasize a visceral mark. The spill of ink on nonporous, translucent drafting film (a.k.a. mylar) refers back to the body permeating beyond its own boundaries. The fluid is juxtaposed with collage elements; using solvents and other transfer methods I directly appropriate reference images from my archive. In recent instal...

2013-2015 Goldsmiths, University of London: MFA in Fine Art
2011-2012 Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Baltimore, MD: Post-Bacalaureate Certificate in Fine Art
2006 – 2009 Rhodes College, Memphis, TN: B.A. in Studio Art
2007 (summer) Accademia dell’Arte, Arezzo, Italy
2005 – 2006 Lesley College/The Art Institute of Boston, Cambridge, MA

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2017
Thank you for coming: Casa Musumeci Greco, private collection, Rome / Open studio curated by qwatz
2016
Your skin is song; your house is masked: mural presentation for Graniti Murales, Graniti, Sicily.
2015
Pickling Fat Souls in Sugar: Southfork Gallery, Memphis, TN / Curated by Lauren Kennedy
2011
Drift: A la deriva: Proyecto’ace Foundation, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2009
Brooks Introduces Alexandra Carter: Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN / Curated by Kathy Dumlao
2007
Displays of Affliction: Broad Avenue Gallery, Memphis, TN / Curated by Lauren Kennedy

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2017
In Conversation: Clough-Hanson Gallery at Rhodes College, Memphis TN / Curated by Joel Parsons
Werkpräsentation der KulturKontakt A.I.R.: BKA-Veranstaltungsraum, Vienna, Austria
2015
Roots: On the Ground Floor Gallery, Los Angeles / Curated by Malika Ali
Goldsmiths MFA Degree Show: Goldsmiths University of London
The Longest Distance Between Two Places: Hyperlink Gallery, Chicago
2014
Art In the Days of Haze: Red Gallery, London
Goldsmiths Interim Show: Studio B, Goldsmiths College, London
2013
Figurative Art Now: Shemer Art Center, Phoenix, AZ
2012
Loaded Pistols: Gallery 500, Baltimore, MD / C...