About the Exhibition:
Through oil painting, watercolor, and collaging from contemporary magazines, Debra Cartwright’s work references her experience growing up as the daughter of an American gynecologist. In these works, the Black female body morphs into terrestrial forms within brown, dark green, deep blue, and auburn colors. Her figures blend into multidimensional ethereal forms deconstructing the body as surrealistic, asynchronous, and estranged.
Moving through trauma and mythical worlds, Cartwright references the American sublime and Romanticism. She is inspired by The Hudson River School, a mid-19th century American group of painters invested in exploring landscapes on the Hudson River Valley waterfront and the Catskills. She pulls from the past and the present, while speaking to the relationships between Black women, fertility, and the American landscape. Cartwright reflects on the Black female experience as it relates to the history of gynecology in America, specifically medical experiments led by J. Marion Sims in the 1800s.
The work on view propels the female form into appreciation, respect, and beauty, while drawing connections between Black bodies and Manifest Destiny. In Cartwright’s work, the transfer of power is shown through autonomy and intimacy, while the history of one’s experience within their own body is revisited.
Wandering Womb: From Myth to Market is on view for the public at Anthony Gallery at 1360 W. Lake Street from September 25th, 2025 to November 1st, 2025.
