Vita Nuova. Depicts the dynamic beginning of Life. Commissioned by Coleman and Sylvia Rafael. 1989. 4 x 10 feet.

La Secunda Genesi is a monumental mosaic relief in the curved architectural Stele to the Souls of all living creatures in the Earth’s biosphere. Visit the Andrei Sakharov Monument page.

“Carter’s works are a prime example of the revival of mosaic as a serious art form in the Twentieth Century. Humanism and concerns about the future of our planet mark the creations of this artist.- Moscow Artist’s Association

Carter’s work is a visual statement that can be read on several levels, most immediately as life or death. Brilliant colors are used as an international language but the viewer must then interpret and reflect on ambiguous forms. -Washington Arts Reporter

1970 -1973. Carter created a body of mosaics in il Centro Internazionale per l'Insegnamento del Mosaico a Marina Romea with Prof Giuseppe Salietti, and in the Academy of Fine Art of Ravenna, Loggetta Lombardesca with Prof. Signorini.

Carter’s study copy of a the leopard mosaic, in the ceiling of San Vitali above the Theodora mosaic. Made in Prof. Salietti’s studio.

Carter’s Roots in Ravenna

Carter’s journey traces an unexpected path to Ravenna, renowned for mosaic art. Born in 1941 in Kansas, surrounded by vast plains. He was influenced by Italian culture through music and family recipes. His upbringing near D.C.'s galleries nurtured his love for Italian art. University redirected him from Psychology to studio art, and encounters in Ravenna fueled his fascination with mosaics.

In 1969, in Helsinki at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, Carter encountered Giuseppe Salietti's copy of Theodora's mosaic which led him to Ravenna. In 1970 he created his first mosaics at Prof. Salietti's International Center for Mosaic Teaching in Marina Romea. A year later he created mosaics at the Adacemi di Belli Arti Di Ravenna in Prof. Signorini's studio. The mosaics included The Magic Horse, acquired by the Ravenna City Art Museum. Carter also studied Early Christian Art with Prof. Giuseppe Bovini at the University of Bologna Institute of Ravenna and Byzantine Antiquities-Ravenna. His creations at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ravenna, particularly "The Magic Horse," won recognition and were exhibited at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. before finding a home in Ravenna. In 1981, for his Master of Fine Arts, Carter wrote a comprehensive program of Mosaic Art, which was to be the culmination of his Ravenna learning, for his Master of Fine Art thesis at Antioch University.

Il Cavallo Magico. Magic Horse. By Jerry Carter. Mosaic relief. Created in Ravenna, Italy. 1972. Featured in: RAVENNA OGGI. 1st RASSEGNA DEL MOSAICO MODERNO . Da oggetto d’arte a consumo sociale collecttivo. Feburary 1978 P. 33.

Exhibited: Smithsonian National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C. 1975 - 1997. Now in permanent collection of the Ravenna City Art Museum.

Copy of the mosaic of Empress Theodora in San Vitali, smaller version of Constantine’s Hagia Sophia in Istanbul Turkey.

This multi-level outdoor mosaic was created in 1972 at the Academy of Art in Ravenna. The artist bent and welded the iron armature in a local welding shop in Ravenna. He sculpted the figure on the ground in concrete relief and created the two mosaic surfaces that make up this assemblage of mosaic and cement sculpture.

Untitled mosaic. Created in the Academia di Belli Arti da Ravenna 1972. Exhibited: Logetta Lombardesca 1972 and The American Painters in Paris Show. Palais des Congrès, 1975-1976.

CARTER AND THE AIMC

Carter wrote and presented: Mosaic: “Media for the Times [On the Need to Integrate Art into the Living and Working Arrangements of the Modern World]” for the Modern Mosaic Study Days of the Pinocoteca Comunale di Ravenna. pp. 13-15. 1981. Jerry W. Carter published his Master of Fine Arts thesis entitled: A Syllabus for Mosaic Art. Visual Arts Center of Antioch University, Columbia, Md. 1982. Jerry W. Carter was elected to the first Executive Council of the AIMC, along with Isotta Roncuzzi Fiorentini [President], Peter Fischer [Vice President], Claude Rahir, Dorothy Bosomworth, Harriet Backer Ziolko, Gianfranco Bustacchini, Verdiano Marzi. [il MOSAICISTA Anno 1 - No. 1 - Fall 1982. P. 6] 1982. Jerry Carter became the American representative of the AIMC. 1984 Carter was selected by mosaic art experts led by art historian Carlo Gulio Argan to create "Second Genesis", The American Peace and Ecology Monument, Parco della Pace, Ravenna. When Carter discovered that there was originally no place for a Soviet peace monument, Carter urged the Moscow Artist's Association to send a mosaicist to the Parco della Pace in Ravenna. A Russian artist, Alexandre Khornoukhov, traveled to erect a Russian peace monument in the Parco della Pace in Ravenna.[1984] 1986. Carter assisted Prof. Vladimir Konstantine Zamkov in mounting his exhibition at the AIMC Congress, Louvain-la-Neuve-Belgium, 1986. Prof. Zamkov was the Director of the Department of Monumental Painting and Mosaic. Stroganoff Art Academy, St. Petersburg. 1988. The Parco della Pace in Ravenna was opened. 1991. Carter wrote a proposal to create a monumental mosaic in honor of Andrei Sakaharov and the idea of ​​human rights. Carter's proposal included a consulting center for political and business leaders, the Center for Democratic Principles. 2023. Carter's Peace Park Second Genesis mosaic appeared on the cover of Mosaic: A Sacred Art Between Cultures and Technologies.

Carter’s mosaics have been exhibited and became part of private and public collections, including The Smithsonian Institution Washington, D.C. and Pinocotecca Comunale di Ravenna and the American Painters in Paris Show 1976.

Angel of Fire

Created in 1983, the Angel of Fire mosaic is an unexplained atmospheric phenomenon that the artist witnessed as a teenager in the early morning before sunrise in the winter of 1956. The spectacular array of lights that streamed from the apex of the sky to the horizon and around Washington, D.C. Materials: Hand-cut Venetian glass mosaic, Arabia porcelain, gold enamels, pink marble.

Couple in Snow Storm

Carter made faces and atmospheric details from painted signatures on the reverse of Valencia porcelain plates donated by Arabia, Helsinki, Finland.

Couple in a Snow Storm, by Jerry W. Carter. Mosaic of Arabia porcelain. Couple sits inside warm cafe by a window in Helsinki. Outside a snow storm and white out.

APERTURA, created by Jerry W. Carter, was selected by the Corning Glass Museum in an international competition for inclusion in New Glass Review 7 as one of the 100 most important works of glass art of 1987.

Apertura. Mosaic of Venetian glass, smalti marble and etched flat glass.

Apertura in low light

Kabuki

The artist captured his memory of the transformation of the White Fox character in a captivating Kabuki opera through his artistic medium mosaic and it’s changing nature through reflected light.

Vita Nuova

In an effort to reduce the weight of his mosaic compositions and maintain a visual relationship with the original surroundings of mosaics, and create an Italian masonry context in the United States which has few interior masonry walls, Carter invented a cast stone backing and frame for his mosaics.

Mosaics with cast stone back and frame

ASCENSION

Venetian glass mosaic and etched flat glass in cast stone mount and frame. The ascension of music in a cathedral.

Black Oscillations

Eight Heavens

Amun

Quattro Cavalli

Egyptian Fetish

Seal of the State of Florida

Lapland

Ascension. Church of the Holy Spirit. Forestville, Md.

Flight of Fantasy

Seal of Georgetown University.