Photo Upfest, 2022.

Ant Carver (b.1991) is a London-based figurative painter working from his studio in Hackney Wick. Working across oil painting, charcoal and printmaking, he creates both intimate portraits and large-scale figurative paintings.

Carver's practice explores the relationship between the physical process of painting and the act of storytelling. Often rooted in personal experience, his works combine portraiture with symbolic imagery drawn from his own memories, interests and observations, constructing narratives that exist somewhere between autobiography and fiction. Rather than illustrating a fixed story, his paintings invite viewers to bring their own experiences to the work, allowing meaning to remain open and fluid.

Balancing realism with expressive abstraction, Carver layers carefully observed figures with gestural brushwork, sketched marks and textured surfaces. His paintings examine themes of vulnerability, memory and human connection, using the material language of paint to attempt to communicate ideas that resist straightforward explanation.