Sara Carter was born in Houston, lived and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area for 25 years, and is now based in Austin, Texas. Carter’s works are embodiments of her psychic state. For Carter, every paint stroke, every layer is an act of channeling, where the subconscious mind meets the canvas. Her work draws from a deep well of universal consciousness, exploring the nature of being, higher self, and collective consciousness.
Color is the central language of Carter’s work. She employs it as a visual tool, but also as an emotional language, expressing the unspoken and the ineffable. Her abstract compositions explore dualities—chaos and order, fluidity and form—capturing the cyclical nature of existence. For Carter, each piece is a journey, an evolving process where energy is released, transformed, and redefined. Just as her work evolves, so does her relationship with it; each piece grows from and informs the next, creating an interconnected body of work. Her canvases are rich with texture and depth, built layer by layer, much like the experiences that shape us.
Carter’s upbringing in Houston and East Texas influences her work, grounding it in the lush landscapes of her youth. The stature and scent of the pine trees, the waxy dark green of wild magnolia, the beauty of dogwood blooming in the spring, and the humid, subtropical air are all embedded in her paintings with color and texture acting as conduits to express the complexity of her experiences. Her family, deeply rooted in connection, also informs this sense of interconnection, where personal identity
is a part of the larger context of family, place, and culture. The cyclical nature of these relationships—how they grow, shift, and return to us—resonates in the recurring motifs of circles, spirals, and shapes throughout her pieces. These forms are not purely aesthetic but symbolic of the eternal return, the endless cycle of creation and renewal. Carter’s practice constantly evolves, mirroring the cyclical process that defines her work. Her approach to art is continually developing, responding to internal shifts and external influences. Embracing experimentation, Carter allows her explorations to flow organically into her broader practice. There is no preordained trajectory, only an ongoing conversation between herself, her materials, and the universe.
Carter studied at the San Francisco Art Institute in the early 1990s, receiving her BFA in 1994. Carter’s paintings have been exhibited at de boer, Los Angeles, CA; Edward Cella Art and Architecture, Los Angeles, CA; NLFA, Houston TX; di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa, CA; Octavia Art Gallery, Houston, TX and New Orleans, LA; Graystone Gallery, San Francisco, CA; the Monterey Museum of Art La Miranda, Monterey, CA; Aureus Contemporary, USA; and Octavia Gallery, Bath, United Kingdom. Her works are held in significant public, corporate, and private collections, including the di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art; Black Stone Minerals Company, Houston, TX; and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Commack Expansion, Commack, NY, among many others.
Stories From the Floor
2024-2025
Stories from the Floor series brings the overlooked into view, turning residual spills, splatters, and markings from years of painting into large-scale vignettes. For decades, Sara Carter has worked with flat canvases, allowing materials to drip, scatter, and settle across the floor. She isolates moments that feel mysteriously complete, sometimes formed months apart, each drawn from an abstract “map” shaped by time, chance, and material buildup. While rooted in the studio ritual, the paintings echo something more primal: feminine, shamanistic, channeling.
The Floor is a sub-series of Stories From The Floor; these unstretched canvases take a more immediate approach. Carter works directly on raw canvas nailed to the floor, allowing brushwork and spillage to unfold naturally. These unstretched pieces absorb each mark, becoming the floor itself. She later returns to areas on the piece that feel visually resolved, enhancing what’s already there. These works are intuitive collaborations between unconscious motion and raw material.
Stories From the Floor 2, 2024, acrylic on unprimed canvas, 72 x 54 in.
Stories From the Floor 4, 2025, acrylic on unprimed canvas, 72 x 54 in.
Stories From the Floor 11, 2025, acrylic on unprimed linen, 60 x 48 in.
The Floor 1, 2025, acrylic on unprimed unstretched canvas, 83 x 63 in.
The Floor 3: Coffee Prophecy, 2025, acrylic on unprimed unstretched canvas, 65 x 83 in.
The Floor 2, 2025, acrylic on unprimed unstretched canvas, 83 x 83 in.
Sara Carter’s 2025 individual paintings act as a prologue—works that carry the energy of Stories
From the Floor and The Floor while beginning to trace something new. Though not formally part of either series, they emerge from the same current of ritual, intuition, and spirit. Created during a year of transition, these pieces reflect a shift from reaching toward the unknown to receiving from it—a period when long-held beliefs began to meet tangible clarity. In Counterweight, Carter balances density with softness, layering pigment in ways that function as both grounded and ethereal. As a group, the 2025 works exist in a state of becoming—paintings as thresholds, holding space for what’s next.
Pink Love, 2025, acrylic on unprimed canvas, 40 x 28 in.
Hopefulness, 2025, acrylic on unprimed linen, 48 x 36 in.
Third Time’s The Charm, 2025, acrylic on unprimed linen, 48 x 40 in.
Sara Carter’s 2024 works explore themes of human evolution, transformation, sovereignty, and transcendence amid cultural volatility and personal change. While each piece stands alone, it reflects the visceral present and a hopeful belief in what lies beyond. The Flowers for Women paintings offer symbolic gestures of feminine power, seemingly soft but pulsing with resilience and quiet defiance. Freedom on Repeat honors the ongoing fights for liberation across racial, cultural, and spiritual dimensions, weaving grief, endurance, and transcendence. Other works, like Soup for Angel Wings and What Dirt Can Do, embrace the human experience, seeing the messiness of life as raw material for growth and transformation. Closer to My Home captures an existential joy, recognizing that living is a path toward infinite love, freedom, and return. Together, these pieces hum with hope, strength, and the unfolding of something beyond the visible.
Joy Is A Small Boat In A Storm, 2024, acrylic on linen, 76 1/2 x 65 1/4 in.
Decks Are Clear, 2024, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 in.
Family Sticks, 2024, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 in.
Sisyphus Wins, 2024, acrylic on linen, 24 x 22 in.
Freedom on Repeat, 2024, acrylic on unprimed canvas, 72 x 60 in.
Night Friends, 2024, Acrylic on linen, 14 x 13 in.
Flowers For Women, 2024, acrylic on canvas, 96 x 48 in.
More Flowers For Women, 2024, acrylic on canvas, 96 x 48 in.
What Dirt Can Do, 2024, acrylic on linen, 72 x 54 in.
Shindy, 2024, acrylic on primed linen, 60 x 48 in.
2023
In 2023, Sara Carter’s works explored the pure ecstasy and joy of creative expression, moving through different emotional frequencies that reach the same ecstatic state. Parties and Parades channels the high-energy joy of celebration, while Silent evokes connection through stillness and presence. Other works suggest dreamlike wonder, profound emotional resonance, and a sense of sacred playfulness. These paintings reflect a vast spectrum of joy, exuberance, and quiet, while being deeply personal.
Silent, 2023, acrylic on linen, 46 x 48 in.
Listening To Clair de Lune, 2023, acrylic on linen, 60 x 41 in.
Parties And Parades, 2023, acrylic on linen, 69 x 72 in.
Enchanted, 2023, acrylic on linen, 72 x 36 in.
Camden Nights
2022-23
Camden Nights is a series shaped by imagined space and childhood memories. Rooted in Sara Carter’s early life in East Texas, the works produce dimensional worlds formed through recollection and dreamlike vision. The name, selected by curator David de Boer, grounds the series in personal history, though the imagery remains abstract and suggestive. Pieces like Can We Get There From Here and Happy Crocodile in the Park both gesture toward movement, joy, and remembered landscapes. Works like Today’s Window speak to emotional transitions without referencing places. Rather than depict scenes, Camden Nights maps internal terrain—moments of wonder, memory, and the shifting space between reality and imagination.
ABOVE: Installation view of Camden Nights, de boer Gallery, Los Angeles 2023. P hoto courtesy de boer Gallery.
Happy Crocodile In The Park, 2023, acrylic on linen, 29 x 36 in.
Red Dirt, 2023, acrylic on linen, 22 x 24 in.
The Depths
2021 The Depths emerged from an intense period of self-exploration, capturing Carter’s confrontation with fear, vulnerability, and the persistent challenges of creation. The title, chosen by curator David de Boer, reflects the emotional excavation behind each work. Facing the canvas meant risking failure and wrestling with uncertainty, but each piece became an act of courage, a visual turning inward. Works like Paris for Two draw on personal threads, such as Carter’s relationship with her daughter, revealing the love and growth woven into complexity. This series isn’t about the surface it’s about the willingness to dive deep and create despite it.
ABOVE: My Right, 2021, on view at de boer Gallery, Los Angeles, 2021. Photo courtesy de boer Gallery.
My Right, 2021, acrylic on linen, 84 x 65 in.
Paris For Two, 2021, acrylic on linen, 84 x 65 in.
Split Decision
2021 Split Decision connects two distinct energies within a single frame, establishing a dialogue between restraint and exuberance. One side leans toward contemplation, while the other pulses with vibrant, intricate forms. Each composition shifts between intimacy and expansiveness, echoing the rhythms of thought and emotion. Color acts as a guide, balancing movement and drawing cohesion from contrast. Carter explores how minimalism and ornamentation, or stillness and vitality, can coexist, amplifying the other.
ABOVE: Split Decision 4, 2021, on view at de boer Gallery, Los Angeles, 2021. Photo courtesy de boer Gallery.
Split Decision 3, 2021, acrylic on linen, 72 x 54 in.
Split Decision 4, 2021, acrylic on linen, 72 x 54 in.
Interior of the Heart
2021 Interior of the Heart turns inward to explore the most influential force we know: love. But rather than focus on its outward expressions, Carter investigates its interior form—the private mythology each person carries within. The heart, both anatomical and symbolic, becomes the entry point. Love is defined as an external force we engage with and an internal one we recognize in ourselves. While acknowledging love’s vast range, Carter grounds this work in a quiet, intimate meditation on its inner dimensions.
Interior of the Heart 1, 2021, acrylic on linen, 84 x 65 in.
Lit with Color
2020 Lit with Color studies restraint, presence, and the quiet power of color. Centered on monolithic, near-monochromatic forms, each painting reveals subtle shifts through surface and detail. Color is not an ornament but an active, illuminating force that defines space and movement. These works are lit with color, activated by it. Beauty is not the endpoint but a means of supporting the energy across the surface. Each piece holds its ground through clarity, nuance, and light.
ABOVE: Lit With Color 10, 9, & 11, 2020, on view at de boer Gallery, Los Angeles, 2020. Photo courtesy de boer Gallery.
Lit With Color 9, 2020, acrylic on linen, 84 x 72 in.
Lit With Color 10, 2020, acrylic on linen, 84 x 72 in.
Lit With Color 11, 2020, acrylic on linen, 84 x 72 in.
Sara Carter
Born in Houston, Texas; lives and works in Austin, Texas.
EDUCATION
1994. B.F.A., San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
1979 The University of Texas, Austin, TX
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 Camden Nights, de boer gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2021 Sara Car ter; THE DEPTHS, de boer gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2020 Lit with Color, Nancy Littlejohn Fine Art, Houston, TX
2019 The Arc of Mod, Nancy Littlejohn Fine Art Pop Up Exhibition, hosted by Dillon Kyle Architects, Houston TX
A Future Perfect, Edward Cella Art & Architecture, Los Angeles, CA
2016 Oshman Family Je wish Community Center, Palo Alto, CA
2005 Grid, Graystone, San Francisco, CA (review) (another review)
2004 Screen Door, Graystone, San Francisco, CA
2002 Humidity, Graystone, San Francisco, CA
2001 Transport, Graystone, San Francisco, CA
1999 For Eloise, Graystone, San Francisco, CA
1997 Window, Graystone, San Francisco, CA
1996 Travel, Graystone, San Francisco, CA
1995 Untitled, Graystone, San Francisco, CA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 (self-)encounters, de boer gallery, Antwerp, Belgium
2023 Open Call Show, McLennon Pen Co Gallery, Austin, TX
2022 Global Entr y, Oolong Gallery, Solana Beach, CA
2021 Last Truth Of The New, de boer gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2017 in tandem, Octavia Art Gallery, Houston, TX Celebration, Octavia Art Gallery, New Orleans, LA
SOMETHIN G REAL, Edward Cella Art & Architecture, Los Angeles, CA
2009 Oktoberfest, Boston Art Inc Boston, MA
Terra Nova, 33 Bond Gallery, New York, NY
2006 Super power: New Art New Artists, Chinatown Pop-up Venue, New York, NY
2003 Approaching Abstraction: The Power of Suggestion, DiRosa, Napa, CA, Richard Reisman Personal V isions, Graystone, San Francisco, CA
2002 Sara Car ter: Paintings. Jay Kelly: Works on Paper, Graystone, San Francisco, CA
On the Surface: Contemporary Paintings by Bay Area Women, Monterey Museum of Art La Mirada, Monterey, CA
2001 Group Show, Graystone, San Francisco, CA
2000 Group Show, Graystone, San Francisco, CA
1999 Group Show, Graystone, San Francisco, CA
1998 Small Works, Graystone, San Francisco, CA
1997 Toward the Millennium, Monterey Museum of Art La Mirada, Monterey, CA
Group Show, Graystone, San Francisco, CA
1996 Group Show, Graystone, San Francisco, CA
1995 Group Show, Graystone, San Francisco, CA
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Anspon, Catherine D., “The New Color Field: Culture Place, Volume 3”, Paper City, pp. 92-93. November, 2020
Licenciada, Daniela Sanchez M. “Sara Carter: The Power of Color, ” Arte Al Limited July/August, 2015 Post, Noah.“Elusive Space,” Glasschord, Volume 1:6, June 15, 2011
Baker, Kenneth. Excerpt from: “Helnwein Locates the Latent Menace in Night Visitors,” San Francisco Chronicle, November 12, 2005
Baker, Kenneth. Excerpt from: “Outside the Window, A Watcher in the Dark,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 31, 2003
Baker, Kenneth. “Sara Carter’s Abstracts Look Lit From the Core,” San Francisco Chronicle, October 19, 2002
