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.

Her newest body of work turns toward food as both subject and symbol. It explores the complicated relationship between food, body image, and self-worth, becoming an entry point into desire, shame, control, and the cultural rules that sit quietly behind everyday choices. Pattern, text, and familiar objects become social mirrors that invite viewers to recognize what is normalized. 

‘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 May 28 2026, she will open her first solo exhibition with Unchained.Art Contemporary Gallery, centered on this newest body of work.

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