CARTER - AMERICAN PAINTING

For his third solo exhibition at Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Carter has swapped the brush for a manual sewing machine, has interwoven towels into the picture support and has changed his reduced color range from blue, grey and black to a rich multicolored spectrum. Although paint is still applied to the surface he has introduced an incredibly detailed stitching using brightly colored thread. Nevertheless Carter’s artistic style remains unique, distinctive and individual. It consists of subtle variations of repeating colors, such as pink, red, light blue or neon yellow and green. Shapes of hand-sewn faces, meticulously sewn eyes, wide opened mouths with brightly colored lips and teeth, stuck out tongues and floating heads manically run through his entire new body of work. The facial images live in a space that’s perhaps both absurd and ghastly, yet ultimately detached from any specific feeling or emotion. Tightly applied to the support, Carter’s blending of the foreground with the partly painted background creates a complete visual space in constructing a dense fabric of references out of formal, semantic and historic allusions.