Mark Carter

Mark Carter (1954, Queens, NY–2005, Bronx, NY) was a professional nurse and lifelong art enthusiast who turned to artistic practice later in life, after an accident resulted in his yearlong hospitalization. Carter’s work incorporates a vast array of found materials—many-hued leather remnants and yarn alongside acrylic paint, tempera, and crayon—to build up richly textured, patchwork compositions. Focused in figuration, his oeuvre registers an expansive iconography that blends religious motifs with contemporary celebrities, often Black: Christ is placed on a plane with Tupac Shakur and Martin Luther King Jr.; nor is it accidental that other musicians he depicts share names with biblical figures, such as the rapper Eve and the pop star Madonna. Borrowing imagery from magazines, sometimes pasted directly into his collages, and frequently depicting the same figure in the same pose drawn from popular image culture, the works invite reflection upon the circulation and reproduction of the photographic image. Carter’s personal experience also enters his works, albeit more subtly, in impressions of Fire Island; a portrait of his niece; and personifications of Viracept, a protease inhibitor used to prevent HIV from multiplying in the body.

Through profound hardship—overcoming drug addiction and homelessness, and living with HIV—Carter understood his work to index the driving beliefs that animated his life: spirituality, his struggle for sexual freedom, and advocacy for equality irrespective of race or gender. His work was shown in a number of exhibitions, most notably Art & Ability: An Exhibition by Artists with Disabilities at the Young Women’s Christian Center, New York in 2001 and 2002; Weather Report: Artists Living with HIV/AIDS at the Jewish Community Center, Louisville, Kentucky, in 2003; and Release, presented by Visual AIDS in partnership with Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA) in 2003.