Nanette Carter
(b. 1954)Using collages with an abstract vocabulary of form, line, color, and texture, Nanette Carter investigates the convergence of the drama of nature and that of contemporary Black life.
Biography
Nanette Carter grew up in Montclair, New Jersey, where her father was the city’s first Black mayor and her mother worked as a vice principal and dance teacher. The arts played a pivotal role in her early life: she took music and dance classes while also collaging in her bedroom–what she considers to be her first studio–and gifting the works to family and friends.
In elementary school, she learned how to make linoleum cuts and etchings, and used a small tabletop press. When she was around thirteen, her parents purchased property in Sag Harbor Hills on Long Island, where she began spending her summers. She attended Oberlin College, majoring in art history and studio art in both painting and printmaking. During her junior year, she studied at the Accademia belle Arti in Perugia, Italy and showcased her work at the Università per Stranieri. While completing her MFA at the Pratt Institute, she worked a summer job at Guild Hall, an arts center in East Hampton. She regularly went to exhibition openings, during one of which she met painter Al Loving, who went on to become her trusted mentor.
Inspired by the collages of Loving and artists such as Frank Wimberley, during her last year at Pratt, Carter tore up her prints and turned them into abstract collages, playing with shape, texture, and composition. After graduating from Pratt in 1978, she taught printmaking and drawing at Dwight-Englewood School in New Jersey until 1987. She completed a mural commission there in 1980. Since 1990, she has continued her practice of collaging, taking inspiration from quiltmaking, jazz, abstract expressionism, and the natural world. She calls herself a “scapeologist,” collapsing the boundaries between landscapes, underwater scenes, and depictions of outer space.
Carter earned her BA from Oberlin College and MFA from the Pratt Institute. She taught at the Pratt Institute from 2001 to 2021. Her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts; New York Foundation for the Arts; and Pollock-Krasner Foundation. The Studio Museum has presented her work in The Studio Museum in Harlem: 25 Years of African American Art (1993); The Fine Art of Collecting I (1985); and Treasures From the Permanent Collection 1970-1987, Part I: Contemporary American Art (1988). Carter’s work first entered the Studio Museum’s permanent collection in 1980.
Nanette Carter
(b. 1954)Using collages with an abstract vocabulary of form, line, color, and texture, Nanette Carter investigates the convergence of the drama of nature and that of contemporary Black life.
Syncopated Scape 1, 1978
Biography
Nanette Carter grew up in Montclair, New Jersey, where her father was the city’s first Black mayor and her mother worked as a vice principal and dance teacher. The arts played a pivotal role in her early life: she took music and dance classes while also collaging in her bedroom–what she considers to be her first studio–and gifting the works to family and friends.
In elementary school, she learned how to make linoleum cuts and etchings, and used a small tabletop press. When she was around thirteen, her parents purchased property in Sag Harbor Hills on Long Island, where she began spending her summers. She attended Oberlin College, majoring in art history and studio art in both painting and printmaking. During her junior year, she studied at the Accademia belle Arti in Perugia, Italy and showcased her work at the Università per Stranieri. While completing her MFA at the Pratt Institute, she worked a summer job at Guild Hall, an arts center in East Hampton. She regularly went to exhibition openings, during one of which she met painter Al Loving, who went on to become her trusted mentor.
Inspired by the collages of Loving and artists such as Frank Wimberley, during her last year at Pratt, Carter tore up her prints and turned them into abstract collages, playing with shape, texture, and composition. After graduating from Pratt in 1978, she taught printmaking and drawing at Dwight-Englewood School in New Jersey until 1987. She completed a mural commission there in 1980. Since 1990, she has continued her practice of collaging, taking inspiration from quiltmaking, jazz, abstract expressionism, and the natural world. She calls herself a “scapeologist,” collapsing the boundaries between landscapes, underwater scenes, and depictions of outer space.
Carter earned her BA from Oberlin College and MFA from the Pratt Institute. She taught at the Pratt Institute from 2001 to 2021. Her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts; New York Foundation for the Arts; and Pollock-Krasner Foundation. The Studio Museum has presented her work in The Studio Museum in Harlem: 25 Years of African American Art (1993); The Fine Art of Collecting I (1985); and Treasures From the Permanent Collection 1970-1987, Part I: Contemporary American Art (1988). Carter’s work first entered the Studio Museum’s permanent collection in 1980.