ARTIST STATEMENT
My paintings explore what remains communicable when the markers we use to identify one another are removed. By concealing faces and bodies beneath fabric, I shift attention away from individual identity and towards gesture, movement and physical relationships.
I am interested in the assumptions we bring to images of other people and our instinct to construct narratives from limited information. My figures embrace, lean, withdraw, support and sit alongside one another, making their interactions recognisable while leaving their circumstances unresolved. Rather than presenting a fixed narrative, I invite viewers to interpret these encounters through their own experiences.
Fabric becomes both a means of concealment and a language in itself, communicating weight, tension and movement where facial expression would ordinarily provide meaning. Drawing on the theatrical drapery, colour and composition of historical painting, I give visual significance to familiar acts of human connection: a conversation, an embrace, a hand held, a body supported by another.
My paintings ask how much we can recognise in one another before we know who we are looking at.
BIOGRAPHY
Kate Carter is a London-based painter whose work explores human connection, communication and how meaning can be constructed without identity.
Carter graduated with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Birmingham City University. Her practice has developed through an ongoing interest in figurative painting and the representation of women within art history, moving from earlier self-portraiture towards her current use of concealed and draped figures.
Her work has been exhibited across London and the UK, including exhibitions with Art Friend Gallery and Well Hung Gallery, and in 2023 her work was selected for Let’s Do London Better, appearing on a large-scale public billboard at Coppermaker Square in Stratford for twelve months. In 2025, Carter undertook a residency with Metal, developing research around place, community and contemporary painting.
Carter currently works from her studio in Dalston, East London, where she continues to develop her painting practice.
