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Winner of the Spring 2012 Competition
Stranger in a Strange Land
Art that explores alienation.
 
 
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UNTITLED III
oil on canvas
72 x 72 in.         
$5500          
 
                                                                                  

artist statement

In the Embodied Series, I was examining in part the complex issues of sex and gender. The work has generated conversations about Jung’s theory of creativity involving the animus and anima (male and female) halves of the soul, and the Greek mythological figure, Hermaphrodite, as well as discussions about the ideal person, Man before The Fall, and the concept of The Innocent. This exploration began as an extremely personal investigation, but the work that transpired has fashioned a discourse that has grown far beyond the seed of my initial experience. It is an affirmation that the truly personal is always universal.

The theme of this competition, Stranger in a Strange Land, provided an ideal venue for this work to be shown. The figures appear in an ambiguous landscape, reflecting the ambiguity of their embodiment, the isolation and estrangement we all feel merely as a result of being individuals. I feel this work is speaking to each individual viewer privately and intimately. What can these figures teach each of us about the complexities of being human in an increasingly inhumane world? What can they tell us about the dangers of accentuating our differences – that which divides us, and minimizing our abundant similarities – the common bonds that unite us? Perhaps by accepting these figures as a reflection of our common human condition, we will begin to see that no one is really a stranger.

 


 bio

Born in Los Angeles in 1969, Eric Allen Carter spent many years in Lincoln, Nebraska (earning his BFA in painting and photography from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln), then Portland, Oregon and Brooklyn, NY (earning his MFA in painting from Pratt Institute), before returning to live and work in his hometown of L.A. A painter since age 7, Eric works primarily in oil on canvas. His work is best described as figurative realism, and is inspired most often by his personal experiences.

 
EDUCATION
M.F.A., Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY 2007
B.F.A., University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE (graduated with honors) 2001
Fundacion Jose Ortega y Gasset, Toledo, Spain Jan - May 1997
 
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Steuben West Gallery, MFA Thesis Exhibition, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY May 2007
Frame Central, Portland, OR April 2005
Tribe Art Gallery, Portland, OR February 2005
 
JURIED EXHIBITIONS
Gallery 825, Los Angeles, CA June 2010
Gallery 825, Los Angeles, CA June 2008
Micro Museum, Brooklyn, NY March 2007
Emerging Artists Group, November Show, emergingartistsgroup.com November 2006
Steuben West Gallery, Contemporary Tactics, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY May 2006
Annex Gallery, New York, NY April 2006 Eisentrager-Howard Gallery
“Undergraduate Fall Show,” University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 2001, Eisentrager-Howard Gallery
“Undergraduate Spring Show,” University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 2001, Eisentrager-Howard Gallery
 “Undergraduate Fall Show,” University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, 2001 Rotunda Gallery
“Art League Fall Show,” University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 1999, Rotunda Gallery
“Undergraduate Spring Show,” University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 1999 Rotunda Gallery
“Undergraduate Fall Show,” University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 1999
 
COLLECTIONS
Portland Community College - Cascade Campus, Portland, Oregon 2005