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Alexandra Carter

Alexandra Carter: The Mother Shell from Alexandra Carter

ARTIST STATEMENT
 
I paint the female body in states of transformation—pregnancy, birth, postpartum—to reveal the visceral realities of motherhood. I want to know how this experience consumes, ruptures, and remakes the self. I’m drawn to the monstrous feminine—the reproductive body as both feared and revered, vola

Growing up on a cranberry farm in Massachusetts, I was immersed in cycles of fertilization, growth, and harvest—rhythms that shape my work. Cranberries become metaphors for the reproductive body: swollen, fertile, bleeding. The harvest’s dependence on flooding echoes my fascination with contain

I often use my own body as a model, staging performances for the camera to explore personal and archetypal imagery. I draw from folklore and mythology, reimagining figures whose transformations mirror the physical and psychological shifts of motherhood. These mythic bodies—splitting, mutating—s

Through these paintings, I confront the contradictions of motherhood—its tenderness and violence, power and erasure, creation and consumption—an experience that is both universal and deeply personal.... more

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Caryatid by Alexandra Carter
Caryatid by Alexandra Carter
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  • Alexandra Carter
  • Caryatid, 2024
  • Ink, copper leaf, and gold leaf on drafting film
  • 20.5 x 14 in
  • $1,000

“Caryatid” draws on themes of fertility, embodiment, and ritual. Referencing a self-performance during pregnancy, the central figure channels the weight-bearing symbolism of architectural caryatids—female forms that uphold sacred spaces. Here, she supports not a structure but a vessel: a bowl brimming with crimson liquid that echoes a menstrual cup, a placenta bowl, or perhaps a chalice of wine—each a potent emblem of life, sacrifice, and transition. Her elongated braid, reminiscent of an umbilical cord, tethers her both literally and symbolically to creation. She stands within a temple-like space, framed by gilded columns and radiant copper pathways, conjuring an atmosphere of reverence and transformation.