Cato on Returning to Raymond Carver’s Writing

“I’ve been happiest with the narrative of my paintings when there’s an open-ended moment, as with Carver’s stories,” says the artist, who relates to the author, and his editor, through imagination, intuition and their way of seeing the world

This story is taken from the Autumn/Winter 2026 issue of AnOther Magazine: 

“Sometimes I’ll read one of Raymond Carver’s stories and think, am I reading too much into this? One of my favourites is his short story Why Don’t You Dance?, first published in 1978, about a young couple who come across a yard sale. Everything this middle-aged guy owns – his bed, TV, record player – is out in the yard and they decide to offer him $10 less than he’s asking for. I’ve been going back through most of Carver’s work recently, including his unedited manuscripts, and I realised the editor Gordon Lish is responsible for some of the magic in his stories, because they leave a lot of room for your imagination to take over. In the unedited version of Why Don’t You Dance?, Carver tells you a bit too much, but the edited version is so sparse it makes you trust your instincts. I think that’s useful in life and in the way I work – not to overexplain things. I’ve been happiest with the narrative of my paintings when there’s an open-ended moment, as with Carver’s stories. And then if people tell me what they think is happening in one of my paintings and it surprises me, that’s the best feeling.”

At the heart of the artist and musician Cato’s practice is an obsession with the energy of street life and a desire to tap into the collective. His layered paintings – full of saturated colours and rich, metallic blacks – blur realism and abstraction, their tactile surfaces recalling stop-motion animation. The figures within them, sourced from found images and photographs taken of strangers cast from the street, are larger than life, their oversized heads hovering above their painted bodies. Cato arranges these figures in enigmatic scenes set in familiar places – barbershops and cafés, living rooms and bars. It’s possible to trace the British artist’s influences: the exuberance of Malick Sidibé’s studio portraits, the rhythmic, kaleidoscopic nature of Romare Bearden’s street scenes and the fragmented surreality of Hannah Höch’s collages. Yet Cato’s use of photography, collage and airbrush is wholly his own – cinematic, lively and warm.

This story features in the Autumn/Winter 2026 issue, marking 25 years of AnOther Magazine, on sale internationally now. Order here