BIO
AC Carter (b. Birmingham, AL) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles, CA. Working across music, graphic design, technology, character building, fashion, video, and painting, Carter's work conceptually explores themes of isolation, unrequited love, gender, and abstraction. A 2020 MFA Fine Arts graduate from the University of Georgia, Carter’s current focus is their musical pop persona, Klypi. Klypi is an alien who travels to Earth in search of a better life, only to discover that what they were seeking is a myth in itself. How does Klypi confront the intensity of Earthly existence? Through song, of course, while also becoming “a businessman,” and asking probing questions about why humans behave the way they do.
Carter is not only a prolific artist but also deeply committed to community-building and challenging societal norms through inclusive and progressive programming. Most recently, Carter helped produce the music programming for Satellite Art Show at their fair in Austin, TX, counter to SXSW, showcasing more than 30 artists over a four-day festival. They organize shows and tours under the moniker Between Booking, working with artists like Freak Daddy, Ronnie Stone, and now ÅNGEL 004 and NO.AH. Previously, they produced Ad•verse Fest, a music and arts festival in Athens, GA, featuring solo and duo performers across genres ranging from electronic music to performance art.
Carter’s work has been featured in publications such as Post-Punk Online, WUSSY Mag, LADYGUNN, PASTE, New American Painting, and the Nashville Scene. They attended the Stove Works Residency in Chattanooga in November 2020 and the Wassaic Project Residency in January/February 2022. As a musician, Carter has performed at Dynasty Handbag’s Weirdo Night at Zebulon in Los Angeles and opened for a variety of artists under other monikers, including Will Butler + Sister Squares, Molly Nilsson, John Maus, Hatchie, Girlpool, Auragraph, and others. Carter has also performed at festivals like Big Ears, Secret Stages, and Athens Popfest. In 2024, they released their first self-produced record through Lolipop Records—writing, producing, recording, and designing the record to appear as a giant floppy disk.
In fashion, Carter has created garments for Kevin Barnes' Of Montreal music video “No Plateau Phase / No Careerism, No Corruption” and Jennifer Vanilla’s performance at MoMA PS1. That said, Carter’s artistic practice is not confined by material specificity but is instead driven by the ideas that guide their work.
STATEMENT
My creative work investigates themes of love, gender deviancy, and authenticity through music, graphic design, technology, fashion, video, painting, and storytelling. It challenges the notion that the individual is singular rather than multiple in design. Identity is tied to the body, both physically and virtually; it is a continuous process of construction and can be understood as both a building and a webpage. These frameworks highlight how identity is prescriptive and reflect on how absurdity and humor can be powerful tools, using deliberate disassociation and punk methodologies to celebrate what it means to be human on planet Earth—and perhaps how it might feel to be an extraterrestrial alien, too.