Anton Carter

Self-taught painter Anton Carter was born in West Allis, Wisconsin on April 16,1975. He attended the University of Wisconsin,Milwaukee where he studied psychology, philosophy and theater.His primary focus was film/acting until the year 2000. Until that time his output consisted primarily of absurdist film and video work with long time collaborators. He has also made music as a singer and saxophonist both on his own and with the band Turpentine from 2005-08.

In 1996 while passing through a multi-media exhibit at the Guggenheim NYC, he stepped off the spiral and saw “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”by Pablo Picasso. This was an awakening not just to the fact of transcendence in art, but also the difference between timeless form and trends.

His primary influences are the painters Francis Bacon, Arshile Gorky, Jackson Pollock , Pablo Picasso and writer Samuel Beckett. It was the physicality of Pollock’s splatter paintings that acted as an invitation to painting. He first painted using house paint and second-hand canvases. He immediately fell in love with the medium despite the difficulties that it posed.

His early years as a painter were a back and forth of good and bad painting. After he learned that ultimately, the materials would dictate the terms, he incorporated the act of acquiescence into his work which allowed a broader and more forgiving process,

The basic tenet of his process is instinctual. Anton tries to make paintings that seem as though they have always existed.

As a mature painter, Anton starts with eyes closed and “sketches” a form with a marker alternating between both hands. He then uses a sort of transposition of color-field painting to pull out the form and content of the piece. His best work involves an interplay between his sub/unconscious and conscious mind. There is also a near fanatical devotion to truth and honesty. He believes that the creative process should have teeth. Artists must face fear, accept love and loss and address internal/external conflict to remain authentic. The duality between provocation and acquiescence is like an atom-smasher to the “soul”;it motivates and energizes but it is not a friction without risk.

In 2011 Anton suffered a terrible tragedy when his fiance was killed in a car crash. Having been widowed at such a young age, he turned to painting with an ever increasing intensity. Painting through despair, though intensely difficult and painful, strengthened his process both spiritually and technically. As he struggled, he realized that nothing short of his own death would prevent him not just from painting but improving and evolving artistically. During this time his devotion to truth and honesty was put to the test. 15 years later his dedication to improving as an artist remains untattered.