Artist Statement

My paintings are large-scale, color-forward explorations of multiple realities. Each painting functions as its own entity, emerging from an intuitive process of movement and form that feels both spiritual and instinctive. The resulting ecstatic landscapes become visual metaphors for the abstract forces that govern the universe, echoing the philosophical questions that shape how we perceive existence. There is a sense that the paintings know something we do not, their surfaces holding a quiet mystery and a mythic quality that resists explanation. Influenced by Jean Baudrillard’s idea that with the right analytical tools we might uncover hidden truths, I continually explore the speculative nature of reality itself. The paintings suggest that what we see is only the apparition of a more intricate and elusive world. 

Bio

Melissa Carter (b. 1989, Kentucky) is an abstract painter living and working in Austin, Texas, whose large-scale ecstatic landscapes consider the speculative nature of reality. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting with honors from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2018.

Carter has exhibited internationally, including group shows in Guatemala City, Rio de Janeiro, and Florianópolis, Brazil. In the US, she has presented a solo exhibition at Institute 193 (2018), a solo photography exhibition at the University of Kentucky (2016), and participated in group shows at venues such as the Diego Rivera Gallery in San Francisco and Land of Tomorrow in Lexington. In 2019, she completed a residency in Antigua, Guatemala, where she drew on ideas from philosophy and literature to examine how images construct truth. Her work has been featured in Burnaway, Vulture, Subbacultcha, and Vuu Studio.

Carter previously worked as a museum curator, organizing exhibitions that explored both contemporary and historical perspectives. That curatorial experience continues to inform her painting practice, which examines the relationships between illusion, perception, and the hidden structures of the natural and cosmic world.