Meet Rob Carter

When Rob Carter was around eight, a class in his ‘prep’ school in Malvern, England, introduced him to his lifelong vocation: Art.

“It was formative, really brilliant in a way! My teacher completely inspired me; unfortunately, he was also a terrible menace,” laughed Carter during our interview. “I was introduced to perspective and began drawing from an early age, which eventually led to my love of carpentry and ceramics, and other creative practices that involve making things with my hands.”

While studying at Oxford University’s Ruskin School of Art, Rob narrowed his focus and began creating very minimal, abstract paintings. “It was a slightly strange route, I suppose, especially at that age when other artists were trying a lot of different things out, experimenting with mediums and styles, but I was very keen to explore the objectness of painting,” he explained. “They were single color and super minimalist, somewhat sculptural, and I moved into creating 3D pieces that came off of the wall. I think that being so specific and focused at such a young age – I was just 20 years old – meant that I could empty out a lot of the other noise going on around me – my identity, undergraduate pressure, life in general – and I could instead put myself into this very narrow band of ‘painting as object’. Ultimately, it just didn’t have enough content for me, so I decided it was time to try new things and learn more about myself and my view of the world.”

After graduating, Rob spent two years teaching at Tonbridge School, an all-boys school in South East England. “It was very posh, and I was the Artist in Residence there, which was a great experience right after college,” he recalled. “Even though I enjoyed it, I didn’t think of myself as a ‘teacher,’ and I knew I wanted to continue my studies. That led me to Hunter College in New York, where I received my MFA.”

While Rob had always been interested in photography and experimented with it throughout his undergraduate studies, his time at Hunter proved pivotal. “About halfway through, I switched from painting to film and photography; it was 2001 and change was in the air, I suppose, and it became clear that my focus should be on digital media and traditional photography. My work now is very multimedia, incorporating some elements of painting, but never fixed to one process or medium.

“As soon as I got to New York, I needed a job and began working for an artist from Texas, named Susie Rosmarin,” he recalled. “She was amazing, gave me so much insight into the life of a professional painter, and introduced me to folks in the New York gallery world.”

Rob had flirted with the idea of being a teaching assistant in grad school, but he still didn’t think of himself as a professor. After graduating from Hunter, he continued to live in Brooklyn and found stability working in art galleries.

“I began working for galleries in Soho and Chelsea, and that’s how I transitioned from grad school into an ‘art practice,’” he shared. “For the next 13 years, I developed my skills in a practical sense, installing and packing artwork and making my own art at home or in studios around Brooklyn. I also started attending artist residencies, one- to three-month experiences that allow artists time to work and often encourage interaction with the local community in urban and rural settings.”

Rob’s first residency was at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, FL, where he was part of a small group of artists working with Brazilian artist and photographer Vik Muniz. “Vik is a highly successful photographer, and although our work was very different, I learned a lot as we experimented and developed new video work throughout the residency. That experience gave me a taste for residencies, and I’ve done several since.”

In 2016, Rob moved to Richmond, VA, and soon discovered it was ultimately a university town. He got a job as an adjunct professor a few years before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and he leaned into teaching at that time. “It was then that I realized, ‘Hey, I’m good at this!’ and decided to look around for a tenure-track professorship. That led me to Flint,” he noted.

Rob has always had a deep interest in environmental rights and justice, so he had been aware of Flint through the media exposure of the Water Crisis and had kept an eye on the city as it recovered. 

“Getting the job at UM-Flint felt like kismet to me — I love the spirit and vibe in Flint, and that I get to work in a community of people motivated to make change,” he shared. “I love living in this city; it fits my ethos and values. For the past twenty years, I’ve developed my practice and perspective — working in galleries, creating new work at various artist residencies, and, frankly, just living life — to the extent that now I feel like I have more to share, that I am a better teacher. I can give more informed guidance now than when I taught in the 1990s. I love that I get to bring all that to a place like UM-Flint and inspire my students to expand their own sense of what it means to be an artist and how that can include being a steward of the world.”

Rob’s Flint Fave

Riverbank Park. “Here’s the dream: Let’s rehab this! The architecture is from the 1970s and is a beautiful piece of Brutalist design by Lawrence Halprin. I would love to work on restoring it and getting the waterfalls running again, perhaps powered by wind or solar energy, with a maintained ecosystem of native plants. Just think how much pride and joy it would bring the community!”

Flint in Three Words

• Bursting with Potential (serious version)
• Red Light — Maybe? (silly version)

Rob’s Art in the Wild

Like most of the Fine and Performing Arts faculty, Rob is an active, professional, working artist. Check out a selection of his work on his website, and see new works in person at the upcoming exhibition, Today is Yesterday’s Tomorrow, at Riverbank Arts.