Erin Carle

Erin Carle is an Austin-based multi-disciplinary artist whose visual practice centers on painting.  

Born (1999) and raised in Houston, Carle was immersed in dance from an early age and later became a professional ballerina, where discipline, conformity, and demanding body standards are reinforced daily. That lived experience continues to shape her practice: she paints the tension between what women are told to be and what they actually carry.

Carle’s earlier work explored optical language through pattern, repetition, and intensity. Visually seductive, it pulls you in, then leaves you with a sharper edge. In her latest paintings, that same visual control evolves into stylized figurative work with surreal elements. Through carefully staged imagery, Carle examines the contemporary female experience, with particular attention to the pressures placed on women’s bodies and behavior.

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Her newest paintings use food as both subject and symbol, sweet, indulgent, a little absurd. Underneath the bright colors is a harder question about body image, self-worth, and who gets to decide what a woman's body should look like. The familiar objects and patterns aren't your typical decoration, they're doing the work of showing how normal we've made all of this

‘I approach these works with a sense of play and irony, using bright colors and exaggerated forms to contrast the heaviness of the subject matter. The phrase “you should eat a burger,” often tossed at women as both a judgment and a cure, becomes a central motif, exposing how casually society polices bodies under the guise of concern. By framing body dissatisfaction through something as ordinary and indulgent as a burger, I hope to make space for reflection, laughter, and empathy.’

Working primarily in oil, Carle builds layered, high-saturation surfaces where color, pattern, and symbolic details carry the story. Her recent paintings combine traditional oil technique with mixed supports, including canvas, paper, and panel. She is also beginning to expand selected ideas into ceramic as a sculptural extension of the work. 

Carle earned her BFA in Painting from Texas State University (2022) and is currently completing her MFA at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her work has been exhibited in the U.S. and internationally, including VOLTA Art Fair (Basel) and the George Washington Carver Museum (Austin), among others. Carle is also a 2025/26 Future Front Artist Residency participant.

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On June 4, 2026, she opened her first solo exhibition with Unchained.Art Contemporary Gallery, centered on this newest body of work.

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