Nanette Carolyn Carter, born January 30, 1954, in Columbus, Ohio, is an African-American artist[1] and college educator living and working in New York City, best known for her collages with paper, canvas and Mylar (archival plastic sheets).[2]
Daughter of Frances Hill Carter (January 13, 1920 – February 2, 2015) and Matthew G. Carter (October 16, 1913 – March 14, 2012), Nanette and her sister, Bettye Carter Freeman, grew up in Montclair, New Jersey, and graduated from Montclair High School.[3] Her father served as the city's first African American Mayor (1968-1972),[4] and her mother was an elementary school teacher who also taught dance, later becoming a reading specialist and Vice Principal in the Paterson Public Schools.
Early life
In 1960, Carter's family moved from Ohio to Montclair, New Jersey. A doctor of divinity, her father was also a civil rights leader[5] dedicated to social justice and housing reforms[6] and served as Chair of the New Jersey Commission on Civil Rights.
Since 2001, Carter has taught drawing at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, where she is a tenured Adjunct Associate Professor.[12]
Carter's work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions[13] and is represented in over 45 corporate collections in addition to museum, library and university collections, including: The National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba, The Studio Museum,[14] New York, NY, Yale University Art Gallery,[15] New Haven, CT, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, The Brandywine Workshop and Archives,[16] Philadelphia, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, among others.
Creative practice
In a 1984 Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Decorative Arts and Design exhibition, “Frank Lloyd Wright and the Prairie School,” Carter first saw Mylar in use by many of Wright's students. Known today for her collages with paper, canvas and Mylar (archival plastic sheets), Carter's work is recognized for its complex compositions, paintings, and drawings[17]
Her work directly responds to contemporary issues around war, injustices, and technology.[18] She seeks to address the need for “negotiating the realities of inequality seen around the world[19]” as evident in her series “Afro-Sentinels II"[20] that emanates from the desire to combat racial injustice with a cadre of vigilant guards. A body of recent work, begun in 2013, “Cantilevered”[21] becomes a metaphor for 21st Century life, “living with technology advancing every day, forcing one to look at global issues….responsibilities....a deluge of information and history.” In her creative practice for many years, Carter has been dedicated to working with intangible ideas around contemporary issues in an abstract vocabulary of form, line, and color, and to present the mysteries of nature and human nature. She seeks to achieve at the same time luminosity, transparency, and density in her compositions.
Permanent collections (selection)
Nanette Carter's work is included in the permanent collections of museums in the United States and abroad.[22]
Carter has been awarded many honors including the Anonymous Was A Woman Award (2021),[23] The Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Grant, NY (2014), Artists’ Fellowship Inc. Grant, NY (2013), The Mayer Foundation Grant, NY (2013), Cultural Envoy to Syria, (2007) chosen by the US State Department to represent US at the 7th Annual Women's Art Festival in Aleppo, Syria,[24] Mudd Library, Oberlin College (2003) Commission, OH,[25] and invitations to be a resident artist at Hydra Art Project (2017), Perugia, Italy[26] and the Experimental Printmaking Institute (2015), Lafayette College, PA.
Further reading
Visions of our 44th President. Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Regal Printing Ltd, Hong Kong, 2015
Profile, Nanette Carter. Charlotte Savidge. D x D – Differentiate by Design. Pratt Institute, NY March 2016
“Bouquet for Loving. My Mentor My Comrade,” Nanette Carter. “On Using Scapes,” Nanette Carter. Black Renaissance Noire, Institute of African American Affairs, New York University, NY, pp 91–95, 89, Vol 9, No 2-3, 2009/2010
“Nanette Carter at G. R. N”Namdi.” Jonathan Goodman. Art in America, January 2007
American Artist at Kozah Gallery. Tisheen. Damascus, Syria, November 27, 2007
Aqueous. Leslie King-Hammond. Ph.D.. G.R. N’Namdi Gallery, New York, NY 2006
Review. Margaret Hawkins. Art News, December 2005
Creating Their Own Image: African American Women Artists. Lisa Farrington, Ph.D., Oxford University Press, Oxford, England. 2004
Three Decades of American Printmaking. The Brandywine Workshop Collection. Allan Edmunds, ed., Hudson Hills Press, VT. pg 133, 2004
A Visual Explosion in Harlem. Cherilyn Wright. The International Review of African American Art. Hampton University, Hampton, VA. Vol 18, No 4. 2003
Six American Masters. Holland Cotter. The New York Times, NY, June 14, 2002
The Artist’s Way. O The Oprah Magazine, Hearst Communications, NY, p 230, November 2001
Metaphors on Mylar. Edward Sozanski. The Philadelphia Inquirer, PA, October 22, 1999
Interview of Nanette Carter. Calvin Reid. Artist and Influence. James Hatch, ed. Hatch-Billops Collection, Inc., New York, NY 1998
Beyond the Veil: Art of African American Artists at Century’s End. Mary Jane Hewitt, Ph.D. Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, 1998
Fresh Paint! New York Scene. Jonell Jaime. The International Review of African American Art, Hampton University Museum, Hampton, VA, Vol 13, No 13, 1997
Bearing Witness: Contemporary Works by African American Women Artists. Lowery Stokes Sims, Judith Wilson, et al. Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, GA and Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., NY, 1996
Gambo Ya Ya: Anthology of Contemporary African-American Women Artists. Leslie King-Hammond, Ph.D. Introduction. Midmarch Arts Press, NY 1995
^Major, Gerri. "Gerri Major's Society World", p. 38. Jet (magazine), December 19, 1974. Accessed February 6, 2020. "Nanette Carter, a graduate of Montclair (N. J.) High School, daughter of former Mayor and Mrs. Matthew Carter, is studying at the University of Perugia, in Perugia, Italy."
