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Patricia Carter

Patricia Carter is a painter and printmaker, as well as an installation and performance artist from Buffalo, New York. She has had numerous exhibitions in and around the Western New York area, has received awards such as the Special Opportunity Stipend, served on panels and juries, and has given lectures at various colleges and universities. Carter has also taught art and served as a board member for Hallwalls Contemporary Art Gallery and the Burchfield Penney Art Center.

Early Life

Carter grew up in a "lineage of creativity". She was born into a family that encouraged and nurtured her creativity. During her childhood she explored her talents through crafts and being apart of the 4H club in her area, which was taught by her mother. Over time it became clear that she had natural, innate ability to create art. She was raised by her mother who was a creative herself, and was also involved in the Civil Rights Movement and worked with the SCLC. She was also raised by her grandmother, who Carter describes as "strict, religious, and conservative". Despite having grown up in a racially tense time, Carter did not feel racial oppression. She grew up sheltered from racial tension in multi-cultural community in Lackawanna, New York. Carter graduated high school in 1968 in the mist of the Civil Rights Movement and the Women's Liberation Movement. Coming of age on the cusp of such major societal change gave her a different perspective than that of her mother and grandmother.

Career, Education, and Work

Carter never planned to be an artist, it is just something that happened naturally as she nurtured her creative talent. As she began taking art more seriously, she decided to take private art lessons. When she first started college she was planning to go into the medical field to become a doctor. However after two years of that Carter decided to go into design at Cornell University, where she was able to combine her love of science and design in their environmental design program. Even so, it wasn't until years later that she became interested in making a career of her art. In addition to attending Cornell, Carter has studied at University of California Berkeley, Buffalo State College, and has a Ph.D in American Studies from SUNY Buffalo. Her first show was at the Castellani Art Museum where she participated in a show about the Underground Railroad. For this she created a mixed media piece that was meant to represent breaking free of bondage. For Carter, mixed media takes two dimensional art to the next level because to her, painting and drawing is not always enough to communicate a point the way that installation art and mixed media can. She is also a strong believer in the importance of the physical presence of objects.

Printmaking Vs. Painting

Learning the art of printmaking and making monotypes served as "growth spurt" for Carter as it forced her to be more "expressive and spontaneous". Finding this a more freeing method, she learned how to let go, saying that she "loved what could happen by accident" and she liked the fact that she couldn't go back and fix things that she could have fixed in painting. This translated to her other work and caused her to be more expressive within her painting as well.

Themes and Inspirations

In her work, Carter explores themes of race, bondage, domestic work, family, matriarchy and more. The theme of matriarchy is especially present in her work as she grew up in a matriarchal family and in adulthood had to decide what that meant for her, calling herself a "counter matriarch". Works such as "Jessie's Pride", which was inspired by a photo she found of her grandmother holding a white baby while working as a maid in the 1940's, encompasses many of these themes while also hinting at the social issues of the time. It was Carter's aim to portray women like her grandmother in art and to show their beauty and to celebrate them, however this piece was met with some push back.

Carter cites artists such as Eric Fishl and Michael Ray Charles as some of her inspirations. Other artists that she admires includes artist and University of Buffalo professor Millie Chen from whom she learned much of what she knows about performance art. Throughout her career her grandmother has been a huge source of inspiration for her, along with the concepts of family, matriarchy and spirituality.

Teaching

In addition to being an working artist herself Carter has also taught art to children at prominent institutions such as the Albright Knox Art Gallery and even went across the country to teach in Arizona. While teaching art in Arizona she was able to help change children's lives. A meaningful experience, it taught her how much of a difference that art can make in a person's life.

Present

Currently Carter continues to live and work in Buffalo. Although her health has presented challenges due to an exposure to toxins, her work continues to change and evolve as she does. Her more recently work deals with updating her past work and exploring the intersections between the practical and the creative. She also hopes to expand on the theme of family and matriarchs as well as break into Canada's art market.

Exhibitions

Solo Exhibitions

• 1997 Illusions and Representations El Museo Francisco Oler Y Diego Rivera Gallery Buffalo, NY Craig Centrie, Curator

• 1997 Patricia Carter: Paintings and Monotype Prints State University of New York at Buffalo, Rare Books and Poetry Collections Robert Berholf, Curator

• 2001 Patricia Carter: Recent Works Olean Public Library Olean, New York Cheryl Jackson, Curator

• 2002 Uniformity Portlock Gallery, Lafayette College Easton, Pennsylvania Deborah Rabinsky, Curator

• 2006 24/12: Patricia Carter and Kelly Spivey Burchfield-Penney Art Center Buffalo, NY

• 2007 Patricia Carter: Colby Artist Buffalo Seminary Buffalo, NY

Group Exhibitions

• 1993 Crossings Castellani Art Museum, Niagara University New York Elizabeth Licata, Curator

• 1995 Covering/Uncovering Impact Women's Gallery Buffalo, NY Juried by Nancy Weekly, Charles Cary Rumsey Curator, Burchfield-Penney Art Center

• 1995 Acts of Courage Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center Buffalo, NY Deborah Weeks Carson, Curator

• 1996 46th Western New York Exhibition Albright-Knox Art Gallery Buffalo, NY Juried by Olga M. Viso, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art, Hirschorn Museum, Washington, D.C.

• 1997 Western New York Show Art Dialogue Gallery Buffalo, NY Don Siuta, Curator

• 2001 Red All Over Joy Gallery (Burchfield Penney Art Museum) Buffalo, NY

• 2002 A Second Look: Selections From Four Decades of Western New York Artists Burchfield-Penney Art Center Buffalo, NY

• 2003 Stories Without Words Rockefeller Arts Center Fredonia, New York Cynnie Gaasch, Curator

• 2005 Recent Acquisitions Burchfield-Penney Art Center Buffalo, NY

• 2006 THINK INK: Prints From the Burchfield-Penney Collection Nancy Weekly, Curator

• 2007 About Face: Portraits from the Gerald Mead Collection Fanette Goldman/Carolyn Greenfield Gallery, Daemen College Amherst, NY

• 2007 Small Works Nina Freudenheim Gallery Buffalo, NY

References

• "Biography." Patricia Carter. N.p., n.d. Web.
• "Living Legacy Interview with Patricia Carter." Interview by Heather Gring. Burchfield Penney Art Center. N.p., n.d. Web.