Exquisite Corpse - A Journal of Letters and Life

John Carter's drawing work is one aspect of a long and varied career in the visual arts. As in all his work his drawings are a means of allowing his psyche to play and inviting its forms to emerge with spontaneity and candor. His in-depth essay on the creative process behind these images can be accessed by following the author's links to Issue #10 where five additional drawings are reproduced.
     John Carter received his BA and MA from UCLA in 1964 and 1966. During the period from 1968 to 1984 he taught in New York City at Cooper Union and at the School of Visual Arts and since 1984 he has taught typography and graphic design at California State University, Fullerton, where he is the head of the Graphic Design Program. His original and highly unorthodox type face, Maya, may be found on the web at precisiontype.com. Carter worked for Charles Eames as a graphic designer and also worked in the studios of UCLA's University Extension and at Robert Miles Runyon and Associates. He has had design work published and shown in journals and award annuals and exhibitions including the New York Art Directors Club Annual, Graphis, Graphis Annual, CA Annual, and the Los Angeles Art Directors Club Annual.
    In addition to his design work he has created fine art works in diverse mediums including drawing, painting, photo-screen and photo-lithographic printmaking and video art (tapes and interactive video environments).
    This work has been shown in one-person exhibitions including the New Jersey State Museum; the Minneapolis Institute; the University of Michigan Museum of Art; the Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York; the Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University and the Anthology Film Archives, New York. Group exhibitions have included the Museum of Contemporary Crafts, New York; the International Museum of Photography at Eastman House, Rochester; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
     His work is in thirty-one public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the International Museum of Photography at Eastman House, Rochester; the National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He has received grants from The National Endowment for the Arts; The New York State Council on the Arts, twice; The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, twice, and a Fulbright Fellowship to the Royal College of Art, London.