Axelle Fine Arts is thrilled to announce Beth Carter’s upcoming solo exhibition, Dancing With Morpheus. Carter, a native of Bristol, England, is best known for her fantastical sculptures and her intricately detailed and atmospheric drawings on paper. The show will introduce ten new sculptures, several new drawings and two stunning animations. The artist created the whimsical animated drawings in collaboration with her husband, digital producer Stuart Mitchell.

Carter’s sculptures, deeply rooted in mythology, are part of a genre the artist describes as “magical realism.” There is something peculiar and enchanting about her menagerie of minotaurs, winged creatures and half-human forms. Carter first crafts her sculptures out of clay or wax and consequently casts them into limited edition works in bronze or resin. She emphasizes that her art is conceived in a deeply internal and contemplative place; it requires a large emotional investment from her and this raw sensitivity is evident in her works. Carter frequently accomplishes a rare feat in capturing grief, vulnerability, whimsy and magic in one piece.

Her works often explore the nature of duality; whether it is the relationship between beasts and humankind, vulnerability and power or the real and the imagined, the artist cleverly juxtaposes conflicting ideas that the viewer, alone, must reconcile. The distinct sense of melancholy present in Carter’s art allows her creatures to be at once physically imposing and emotionally vulnerable. Her series of thoughtful drawings in charcoal and conté demonstrate this same interior need to explore sadness and the subconscious. Carter’s unique body of work creates an alternate reality – one that invites the viewer to partake in a journey to a strange, dreamlike world where the lines between man and beast, reality and the subconscious and the possible and impossible are no longer clear.

Beth Carter received her degree in Fine Art from Sunderland University in the United Kingdom. In 1995, she was awarded 1st prize in the Northern Graduate Show ‘95 at The Royal College of Art, London. Afterwards, she traveled to Sri Lanka, India, New Zealand, Mexico, Gambia, Kenya and Tanzania to study mythological sculpture; she plays with these classical precedents to create a new genre that is all her own. Her work has been shown in the US and abroad and appears in private collections throughout Europe, Asia and the US. She has temporarily relocated from the UK to Brooklyn, NY to prepare for this exhibition; she will attend the reception on November 2.