Nanette Carter, Cantilevered #27 (Teetering), 2016, oil on Mylar, metal, wood, 23 × 14 inches.
In the summer of 2019, my family and I moved to South Orange, New Jersey, after twenty-five years of living and working in Brooklyn. Just twenty miles due west of Manhattan, our small village and the surrounding communities in Essex County have deep artistic roots dating back well over two centuries to the era of Hudson River School painter Asher B. Durand, who was born, raised, and later died in nearby Maplewood. The history includes many other acclaimed visual artists, ranging from George Inness to Tony Smith (his daughters Kiki Smith and Seton Smith too), Barbara Kruger to Willie Cole, and countless others.
This creative legacy includes Montclair native Nanette Carter, who recently opened an enthralling and comprehensive fifty-year retrospective at the Montclair Art Museum, A Question of Balance, guest curated by Mary Birmingham. I had the unique opportunity to walk through Nanette’s show with her and discuss the evolution of her work and ideas over time, as well as the challenges and revelations of working in abstraction over the course of many decades. She also shared the significance of mentors and community in her artistic development and professional career, and the core values that her fierce, recent work presents to the public.
July 30, 2025
