Debra Cartwright

I passed the Order of the Tents house on MacDonough almost every day while working on this. The house itself dates to 1863 and was purchased by the United Order of Tents in 1945, a historic Black women’s mutual aid organization founded by formerly enslaved women. For generations, the organization provided care, shelter, burial support, and community for Black women and families excluded from many public institutions. As more and more of these buildings disappear under waves of redevelopment and coffee shops, I keep thinking about all the women who found solace, protection, and community inside places like this. Watercolor and ink on paper

Dorsal Recumbent Made this while deep in research around the history of women’s healthcare in NYC, especially the ways midwives and women cared for each other before everything became so institutionalized and controlled. I was really thinking about passing down knowledge, girlhood, homemade procedures/remedies, intimacy, care, and the body as both vulnerable and powerful at the same time. Still really love this series. watercolor, collage, archival imagery. Art Basel Miami

With the ever inspiring @debracartwright last week 💙 our next newsletter drops this Wednesday! Sign up at our website 💫

We are excited to announce our participation in Frieze Los Angeles for the 4th consecutive year. The fair takes place at the Santa Monica Airport, February 26-March 1, 2026. Our stand includes an intergenerational presentation anchored by Carl E. Hazlewood’s totemic wall works. Our stand also includes work by Antonio Carreńo, Debra Cartwright, Ryan Cosbert, King David, Grace Lynne Haynes and Na’ye Perez. Themes in our presentation revolve around remembrance and recollection, world building and the story of resilience contained in the African folktale about Anansi the Spider. If you’re in LA, visit us at Booth D-12 in the galleries section. We look forward to engaging with you during and after the fair. #welancora #friezelosangeles #friezeofficial #friezeweek #frieze

Honored to show new work in Constellations of Belonging, Shefon Taylor’s first curated exhibition at The Delaware Contemporary. As Shefon beautifully wrote: [This exhibition honors] the demands made on Black women’s bodies to be visible, consumable, legible and how much effort it takes to remain intact in that process. [Our] work runs toward interior life, toward obscurity, toward what’s held quietly under pressure. I am pressing on thoughts of my own visibility in this deeply digital moment and this process clarified a great deal about my own practice, what it means to be an artist, what I care about, why it matters who I am making work for and what I understand myself to be in stewardship of. I hope if you’re in or around the area you’ll stop by on February 6th from 5-9 at The Delaware Contemporary in the Riverfront in Wilmington

The second VIP day opens tomorrow at Art Basel Miami Beach. Join us at noon in our booth (N18) for a walk through with Debra Cartwright! @artbasel #welancora

Playlist: everytime drake was in Miami. Come visit my booth with @welancora @artbasel N18 Really excited about this body of work focusing on the 1880s to 1890s when white men took over gynecological practices from indigenous and black women. I overlay my fibrous pours with illustrations from 1880s medical journals and complete with abortifacients buried in history. Come see and talk to me 🤗 Photographer @playtime_lyl Shot out to @citizensofhumanity and @agolde for the fits!

We are excited to announce our participation in Art Basel Miami Beach, for the fifth consecutive year, with new works by Debra Cartwright in the Nova section, booth N18. The fair takes place at the Miami Beach Convention Center with VIP previews on December 3 and 4, 2025. The fair opens to the public December 5-7, 2025. On Thursday, December 4 at 12:00pm, Cartwright will be present in the booth to discuss the works on view and their connection to her evolving body of work. Our presentation includes a suite of new oils on canvas and small and large scale watercolors on paper. The work is an extension of Cartwright’s ongoing exploration into the history of the American medical industry, with an emphasis on the history of the womb and the ways in which women have served as practitioners and subjects in the advancement of obstetrics/gynecology.  Cartwright antagonizes the dialogue between abstraction and figuration to reconcile with complex histories of Black maternal health and reproductive care. As the daughter of a gynecologist, her work draws from imagery she encountered early in life—medical journals, anatomical illustrations—and later through her own independent research. These references become material for subversion, as she abstracts, inverts, and obscures the physical form, challenging the iconography of women in medicine. Cartwright builds and subtracts in the work to mirror the layers of discovery in her research process, allowing the physicality of her subject matter to inform her process. Image: Untethered, 2025 Oil and pastel on canvas 60 x 48 x 2 inches 152.4 x 121.92 x 5.08 cm @debracartwright #welancora #artbaselmiamibeach @artbasel

I’m proud to share that @silverartprojects , the artist residency I’m part of, is hosting its annual Silver Gala on November 20th at @wtc — honoring @SwoonHQ and this year’s incredible resident artists, including myself. Silver Art is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a mission to support emerging and mid-career artists by providing free, year-long studio spaces and career development opportunities in the heart of Lower Manhattan. This residency has made a difference in my life by introducing me to new friends and giving me a space to create my new body of work. I’d love to invite my community to attend this year’s Silver Gala and support an incredible organization that continues to empower artists like me. A portion of each ticket is tax deductible. 🎟️ Tickets are available at the link in my bio — and you can use my code [DEBRA10] for 10% off. Here’s to celebrating the arts and community, together. #SilverGala2025 #SilverArt #WorldTradeCenter

Debra Cartwright. Taurus, Painter, 2025. In continuation of artists in their workspaces via my 4x5 camera. #thebottomlesseye

Thank you Paris for bringing me back to me

One of my favorite pieces from the show @welancora The Alabama azaleas bloom on plantations as symbols of resilience, entwined with histories both seen and unseen. A body in flux, tangled in past and present. The mandala shape to indicate this as a cycle also the circle representing childhood play- a ring around the rosy