Artist Biography

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Carla Armour is an interdisciplinary Artist, intuitive Painter, Curator and Coach. She lives and works between the eastern Caribbean Island, Dominica and the English seaside city of Brighton & Hove. After graduating from Parsons School of Design (NYC) and the New York Restaurant School in 1988, she returned to Dominica and immersed herself in the local artist scene, participating in a ground-breaking group exhibition of paintings and sculptures by Dominica’s leading artists. During a career spanning almost 40 years, Armour has participated in collaborations and group exhibitions in many islands in the Caribbean, in the US, UK, Europe and Namibia (Southern Africa).

 

Her current paintings are multi-media ritualistic intuitive processes that aim to evoke emotions such as recognition, remembrance, redemption, and resolve. To further enrich the experience of the exhibition space, she often incorporates installations to encourage immersive and collaborative sharing between artist’s and visitors' lived experiences. The emotions, insights, and contributions often influence new works.

 

Armour’s current paintings are ‘inner extractions’, often incorporating ancestral iconography; Adinkra symbols, Kalinago glyph images, and intuitive markings via visceral full-body drawing within the layers. She also pulls from a media toolbox of inks, charcoals and pastels, acrylics, oils as well as paper and fabric collage. Especially her signature Hessian (Burlap/Sackcloth) that is a metaphor for human commoditization. At times, hints of grids can be found lurking within or on top these layers too, a nod to the ’boxes’ women have historically been consigned to. However, these cross lines reflect not just the ‘weft and the warp’ of the tapestries of life but also the maturity, calm and order women infuse into our world. Her work intentionally sparks socio-political conversations.

 

In 2018 with Hurricane Maria as her muse, she literally resurfaced, creating pieces on the veranda of her roofless home in Dominica, some of which were selected for a group show, ‘Here Comes the Sun’ a Post Hurricane Maria exhibition curated by the late Donna Mason held at the Strand Center for the Arts in Plattsburgh New York (March 2018). One of these was her award-winning frontline Carnival Band Costume, ‘Maria’ and the Grim Reapers for a section designed by her close friend, the late Earl Darius Etienne. The following year, she installed ‘STILL Waters – Dominica’ (August) and ‘Still Waters - London’ (November). These were her first solo shows in years, which were multi-media and inter-disciplinary. The shows used paintings, sculptural pieces, mobiles, installation and ‘Sharing Space’ to offer the highly emotive and interactive environments that spoke to the journey of experiencing and overcoming displacement and trauma.

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Most recently, Armour contributed her ‘Time for Tea’ Installation to the Regional Art Exhibition a juried collection of Caribbean Artists as part of CARIFESTA XV in Barbados (2025); as part of  ‘By the Means at Hand’ by Vlatka Hovat at The Croatian Pavilion project at Venice Biennale 2024, Waitukubuli Artist Association’s ‘Echoes of Resistance’ Exhibition in Dominica, as well as participated in Artists Open Houses Brighton & Hove 2024. She has also exhibited her paintings, performed her poetry and sat on a panel discussion at 3 Caribbean Fine Arts Fairs in Barbados, first attending in March 2017.  She was among one of 4 artist selected to participate the UK based 6 month project ‘Wheel ‘n Come Again’; a dynamic Film & Arts program managed by Legacy Film UK for which exhibitions and events venues included Onca Gallery, Hastings Arts Forum and culminating in a 2 day program at Fabrica, Brighton in December 2016.

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In her earlier artistic career, Carla was considered an instigator and collaborator of ‘Dominica’s Artistic Renaissance’ in the 90’s when she owned Caribana 100% Dominican Craft Store (a local institution previously owned by her grandmother for 50+ years) and opened the Iris Dangleben Gallery within it. Fully immersed in Dominica’s Cultural scene, Carla’s work gained regional and international recognition with invitations to participate in several exhibitions abroad. Some of the most notable shows Carla did before a break to raise her son and build a career as a Pilates based Mindset & Movement Courage Coach, have been; ‘High Noon’ a group exhibition at the Iris Dangleben Gallery in Dominica (1996), what was hailed by Dr. Alwin Bully as a “Renaissance of Dominica’s Art”; was Dominica’s representative in the International Art Project ‘Women of the World, a Global Collection of Art’ curated by Claudia DeMonte (1998); participated in the International Artist Exchange, ‘Carambolage’ (1998) with 8 artists from Austria and Dominica, as well as many national exhibitions. In 2006, at the end of her 4 years living in Namibia, Carla was invited to hold a solo exhibition at the National Art Gallery of Namibia (2006). On her return visit to Dominica she was commissioned to do paintings interpreting ‘Unburnable’ a novel by Marie-Elaina John-Smith and read her poetry at the first Nature Island Literary Festival in 2008.

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Even back then, her work challenged and innovated what was considered ‘Art’ on the local Dominican scene with the inclusion of Abstract & Symbolic Paintings and small installations. Carla also designed and launched Fashion Collections and was a regular and award-winning poet and spoken word performer. Pieces from Armour’s Lifelines series, employing tribal symbols, hints of a spiralling collapsed DNA helix and prehistoric glyph images and markings were collected internationally. Elements that continue to influence and inspire her work. Armour’s work is in collections across the world from Namibia to, Europe, the US and the Caribbean. She continues to show at fairs and curated shows in the Caribbean and the US.​

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Download her full detailed resumé here.