Christopher Carter

Christopher Carter is a California based artist working in found-object art. Here he discusses his recent 2008 exhibition Bound. In this section view images from his show, and explore his commentary on his work.

 

 

Biography

Christopher Carter

Born in New Mexico and raised in Boston, as a 15-year-old student at the renowned Interlochen Arts Academy, Carter began to imagine a career as an artist. He went on to pursue a BFA from MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art) with a specialization in printmaking, multimedia animation, and bronze casting and foundry in Cortona, Italy. His interest in sculpture intensified during graduate school at the University of California at Berkeley, where he received his MFA in 1995. 

In 2002, Carter spent a summer in New Zealand studying the art of the Maori people. His own multiethnic background had earlier drawn him to African-American and Native American wood carving traditions. A series of monumental carved columns incised with abstract animistic imagery in low relief were the result of this exploration. The work titled “Totemic Columns” was recently purchased for the reopening of the 60Mil+ Grand Rapids Arts Museum in Michigan for permanent display in their ground floor atrium. The GRAM is the first LEED certified Museum in the world and Carter’s extensive use of salvaged materials, including reclaimed woods and found objects made a perfect relationship.  (Content provided by Christopher Carter 2008)

Christopher Carter discusses his works at the Diaspora Vibe Gallery

 

CV

Christopher Carter

Solo/Group Shows

Museum Acquisition 

Grants/Awards

Education

Teaching

Professional Experience

Representation (West Coast)

 

Gallery 1

Christopher Carter

"In art, there are recurring images, obsessive symbols or conceptualized representations that are used as vehicles for a certain interpretation of the world. Such recurrences establish codes that allow the activation of symbolic levers of imagination or bring one’s experience and knowledge up-to-date through unusual - or common - associations. 

In a wide range of today’s art, this symbolic existentialist tendency inherited from expressionism and surrealism exists, which refers us, in addition to its poetics and its ways of representation, to the important questions of modernity: who are we in this post world war era, what is our ontological status in this contradictory reality. The work of Christopher Carter is placed in this labyrinth of the unknown, which opens when man enters in contact with objects, culture and the every idea of art.

One only has to look at Christopher’s art to see the intellectual origin of his ideas, and one can, if memory prevails, see images and hear messages from the pieces dating back to the1940s. Then art became a sharp instrument of social criticism, politics and critique of daily life. Each exhibition became a cultural discourse based on the political climate of the times. Christopher has indeed questioned the socio- cultural content of these years and in spite of his rough trajectory from the artistic utopia of those times has kept his vision of art as experimentation and investigation.

Enjoy this body of work presented in Bound 2008: The man, his work and his art as we continue the dialog the work encourages about war, peace, boundaries and what the nationhood means when seen through the lens of our/your flag." (Content submitted by Rosie Gordon-Wallace May 2003) 

Belted Three and A Half Star

Belted Three and A Half Star

 

 

Gallery 2

Pulled From the Fire Belted and Bound

Belted Three Star Belted Three Star



 

Gallery 3

 Bound 1  Carter discussing Bound 1

Bound 2  Bound 2 at Diaspora Vibe

 Moments  Moments and Bound 1

Carter discussing Moments

  

 

 

Gallery 4

Broken Broken

Spear

Spear

 
 Plank Poem 1 and Plank Poem 2  


 

 


 

Gallery 5

Christopher Carter gives an artist talk at Diaspora Vibe Gallery

 A young art critic comments on Moments

Viewers take in the Bound exhibition Six Star

Gallery 6

Three Star Travelling Star

Travelling Star Two Star

Gallery 7

Close up of Two Star Attendees at Chris' Artist Talk

 
 Back View of Two Star Base of Two Star

 
Wrecking Ball  

Gallery Index