Samantha Cary

Born in 1973, Samantha Cary is an artist who specialises in woodcuts, screen-printing and painting. Cary was awarded a first-class degree in Fine Art from the University of Sunderland. While studying there, Cary researched and examined the role of art and artist in the debate surrounding Palaeolithic Art, a key influence in her work to this day.

Cary first exhibited her work in 2005 at the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolour Exhibition in London. She has gone on to exhibit her works across the United Kingdom, particularly in her home of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Alongside her work as an artist, Cary has worked as a curator for the Maltings Theatre and Arts Centre and a lecturer for Northumberland College. In 2006, Cary was shortlisted for both the Celeste Art Prize and the John Moores Painting Prize. The following year she was a finalist in the Celeste Art Prize and in 2010 Cary was the recipient of the Sunderland Echo Prize.  Cary's self-portrait was acquired by Ruth Borchard Collection in 2013.

Cary's body of work is inspired by her everyday observations and strives to capture appearance over experience. Her studio practice involves the deconstruction of frame, moment, narrative and form. Cary cites her research into Palaeolithic art as a key influence on her art, informing the way she toys with the line between representation and misrepresentation. Cary's self-portrait plays with these same ideas of framing and narrative, depicting Cary in the process of both observing and capturing her experience of painting.