Carey Watters
2022 TMA Contemporary Best of Show Artist

Jan 20 – Mar 26, 2023
3rd Floor Shattuck and GNC Galleries

My artwork is highly personal and mythical in nature. I work with ancient iconography–forgotten saints and anonymous korai–whose erasure over time serve as a metaphor for my own experience as a woman. In the broken postures and enigmatic faces of forgotten sculpted women, I find evidence of struggle and inner strength. In my artwork, I re-animate these characters, making them powerful heroines engaged in epic struggles. Their bodies are stenciled with designs and sewn patterns. Dangling red threads suggest spurting and dripping blood. Figures are encased in jagged edges that glow with luminous energy and protect like barbed wire. Curving, twisting, and fragmented moments unfold and hover above women’s heads signifying the constant battle between intellect and authenticity.

About Carey Watters

Carey Watters, is an associate professor of graphic design at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in Kenosha, Wisconsin. She received her MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in printmaking and book arts. Watters has been working as a professional graphic designer since receiving her BFA in graphic design from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1999. Her paper works weave together concepts regarding feminism, historic map-making, and religious and pagan symbolism. Her work is a direct result of her residencies and travels to Calabria, Basilicata, Puglia, and Sicily, Italy, and her research of Byzantine architecture, design, and religious reliquaries.