Debra Cartwright

Debra Cartwright (b. 1988. Annapolis, Maryland) is an artist interested in depicting the relationship between the Black female body and American medical history. She uses paint and mixed media to explore selfhood and her own positioning as the daughter of a gynecologist. Themes around her work include re-embodiment, myth creation, violence, theft and intimacy. She explores a critical understanding of the past while also proposing an examination of the present American healthcare system.

Cartwright received her BA in Art History from the University of Virginia in 2010; she received her MFA in Painting from Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts in 2023. She has held solo exhibitions at Frieze LA (2024), Montclair Art Museum (New Jersey, 2024), and BODE Projects (Berlin, 2023). She has participated in group exhibitions at TERN Gallery (Nassau, Bahamas, 2024); Swivel Gallery (New York, 2024); Fridman Gallery (New York, 2024), Untitled Art Fair Miami (2023); New York Academy of Art (2023); Sotheby’s (New York, 2023); Westbeth Gallery (New York, 2023); forMAH Gallery (New York, 2023); Allouche Gallery (New York; 2023), and CFHILL (Stockholm, Sweden, 2020). In 2024, Cartwright was a resident at the Wassaic Project.