I was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and grew up in Massachusetts. My interest in textiles and drawing led me to a degree in fashion design and work as assistant to a Boston couturier. Then a position at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston sparked my interest in painting. After receiving a bachelor's degree from Lesley University, I went on to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

I have exhibited in solo shows at the Genovese/Sullivan Gallery, the Danforth Museum of Art and Lesley University, as well as three-person shows at Pine Manor College and Bristol Community College. Group shows include the Chrysler Museum of Art, the New Bedford Art Museum, the Fuller Craft Museum, and Bunker Hill Community College, among others.

I have been awarded a grant from the St. Botolph Club Foundation in Boston, and my work is included in numerous corporate collections such as Berkshire Partners in Boston, Meditech Information Technology in Fall River, and Verenium Corporation in Cambridge.

Two of my paintings are currently on exhibit at the United States Embassy in Cameroon, as part of the ART In Embassies Program.

In addition to painting, I currently teach at Framingham State College and the Danforth Museum School, where I have developed courses in botanical illustration, fashion illustration and landscape drawing. I also write art reviews for the New Bedford Standard-Times.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

“Sky, Stem, Stream,” New England Currents, Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, MA, 2005
“Interlacings,” Marran Gallery, Lesley University, Cambridge, MA, 2004
“New Paintings,” Genovese/Sullivan Gallery, Boston, MA, 2003
“New Paintings,” Genovese/Sullivan Gallery, Boston, MA, 2001
“Collage Paintings,” Facets Gallery, Fall River, MA, 1997
Commencement gala, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA, 1997

TWO- AND THREE-PERSON EXHIBITIONS:

“Walls and Webs,” Narrows Center for the Arts, Fall River, MA, 2010
“Natural Wonders,” Hess Gallery at Pine Manor College, Brookline, MA, 2009
“Driven to Abstraction,” Owen Smith Shuman Gallery, Groton, MA, 2006
“Quinta Essentia: Three Abstract Artists,” Borowicz Gallery, Dartmouth, MA, 2006
“CON/TEXT: Impulse, Order, Response,” Bristol Community College, Fall River, MA, 2004
“Natural Forces,” co-curator, participating artist, Art Space Gallery, Maynard, MA, 2003
“Drawings, Objects, Ceramics,” Genovese/Sullivan Gallery, Boston, MA, 2002
“Abstraction in the Year 2000,” Genovese/Sullivan Gallery, Boston, MA, 2000
“Spring Series,” Bromfield Art Gallery, Boston, MA, 1999

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

ART In Embassies Program, U.S. Embassy in Yaounde, Cameroon, 2008-2011
"Painting Now," Bristol Community College, Fall River, MA, 2010
“New England Impressions III: The Unique Print,” Concord Art Association, Concord, MA, 2009
“Opening Lines,” New Art Center, Newton, MA, 2009
“A New Perspective on Politics,” Artworks, New Bedford, MA, 2008
“Long Journey,” ArtSpace Gallery, Maynard, MA, 2008
“Women of the Cloth,” Bunker Hill Community College, Boston, MA, 2008
“Essential Elements,” Hera Gallery, Wakefield, RI, 2007
“Illuminations,” Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, MA, 2007
“Massachusetts Artists 2007,” Brush Art Gallery, Lowell, MA, 2007
“National Prize Show,” Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA, 2007
“Small Works,” Attleboro Arts Museum, Attleboro, MA, 2007, 2006, 2003
“Inviting Response: Celebrating Our First Decade,” New Bedford Art Museum, MA, 2006
“ON 40 AT 40,” Bristol Community College, Fall River, MA, 2006
“Foundation on Parade,” St. Botolph Club, Boston, MA, 2003
“Rhymes & Rhythms,” ArtWorks, New Bedford, MA, 2000
“New Art 2000,” MPG Contemporary, Boston, MA, 2000
“Ninth Triennial,” Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA, 1999
“Gridworks,” Hera Gallery, Wakefield, RI, 1999
“Inviting the Unknown: Six Abstract Painters,” co-curator, New Bedford Art Museum, MA, 1998
“Irene Leache Memorial Exhibition,” Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, 1998

AWARDS:

St. Botolph Club Foundation, Grant-in-Aid, 2002
Unitarian Universalist Association Art Scholarship, 1996

EDUCATION:

Master of Fine Art in Painting, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 1997
Post-baccalaureate studies, Massachusetts College of Art, 3 full-time semesters, 1994
Bachelor of Art, Lesley University, 1993
The Art Institute of Boston, 3 full-time semesters, 1986-88
Diploma, The School of Fashion Design, 1983

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY:

"Line Dance" by Cate McQuaid, Boston Globe, 1/29/09
“Studio Visit,” Open Studios Press, 2008
“Call and Response: NBAM Exhibit Has People Talking,” New Bedford Standard-Times, 8/22/06
Exhibition Catalog, “ON 40 AT 40,” Bristol Community College, 2006
“Turning 40 Artfully,” New Bedford Standard-Times, 1/26/06
“Curls and Swirls: The Art of Catherine Carter” by Barbara Mellin, Middlesex Beat, May 2004
“Artists’ Dialogue in CON/TEXT” by David Boyce, New Bedford Standard-Times, 2/1/04
“Painter Throws Curves at Genovese/Sullivan” by Cate McQuaid, Boston Globe, 12/19/03
“A Visual Question-and-Answer Session” by Cate McQuaid, Boston Globe, 12/27/02
“Giller’s Towers are a Delight in the Detail” by Cate McQuaid, Boston Globe, 12/22/01
“Thayer Street Abstracts” by Christina Pugh, artsMEDIA, Summer 2000
Exhibition Catalog, Ninth Triennial, Fuller Craft Museum, 2000
“Concrete Look at Triennial’s Abstracts” by Mary Sherman, Boston Sunday Herald, 9/26/99
“Fairhaven Artist Exhibits in Boston,” New Bedford Standard-Times, 6/24/99

"The paintings pop off the wall, thanks to the sheer tension of her gestures and thanks to the contrast: All the paintings are either black-on-white or white-on-black. … Carter displays a handful of different recipes. Many of the 'Coil' paintings bring to mind the joyful wagging of a dog's tail. Two larger works, 'Curve' and 'Swirl,' sport colliding loop-the-loops, like a slinky gone horribly awry. … The white-on-black pieces are sexier, provoking an Op Art kind of retinal buzz. But the black-on-white paintings are more satisfying: The white veils but does not hide dark gestures just beneath the surface, which suggest shadows, depth, and inner turmoil. So 'Swirl' shows those aggressive, black curlicues careening over the canvas as white hazes over their sharp edges and obscures occasional lines, imbuing the painting with spaciousness."

"Giller's towers are a delight in the detail” by Cate McQuaid, The Boston Globe, December 22, 2001

"Patterning and technique are consistent, but the paintings vary widely in tone. 'Bouquet' starts with a spray-painted pattern of plum-toned rings with pale veins. Carter cut her fabric into rough Xs and pasted them in a diagonal grid on the white-painted canvas, so white squares dapple the surface in a moody checkerboard. Ethereal purple rings play tag with the squares, shifting from foreground to background, making a pleasing counterpoint between solidity and haze, reality and imagination. … ‘Hook' features a pattern of two hooks looping away from each other, white on a black ground, repeated in horizontal stripes across the canvas. They could be handcuffs, eyeglasses, breasts -- whatever they are, they're disturbing, even harsh. Carter's formula for making art generates work both pleasing and harrowing, and that's good."

"Thayer Street Abstracts" by Christina Pugh, artsMEDIA, Summer 2000

" ... Catherine Carter is also concerned with the margin between painting or design and writing, but to very different ends. As exemplified in 'Crust,' her mixed media work features patterning, in a proto-script of thickened white loops set in dark horizontal blocks. In these pieces, she achieves an effect of primitive marking that is somewhat reminiscent of the expressionistic pre-drip Pollock. Her patterning exceeds the frame of the canvas, just as the white embryonic 'writing' exceeds its bricked horizontal units. As in all good abstraction, the work points to a certain writing before the writing: writing what one didn't know one knew. … All three of the artists here show a seriousness of abstract purpose that is refreshing in a time of sensationalism and nostalgia. Their works exhibit a maximum of formal mastery coupled with a minimum of self-consciousness."