Andrea Carlson
Andrea Carlson
Andrea Carlson (b. 1979, USA) earned her MFA from the Minneapolis College of Art & Design and BA from the University of Minnesota. In 2025, Carlson will enjoy solo exhibitions at Denver Art Museum, CO; Kemper Art Museum, Kansas City, MO; and Jessica Silverman. She has had previous solo exhibitions at Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI; Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN; and La Centrale at the Powerhouse, Montreal, QC, among others. Her work has been included in group exhibitions at Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, CO; Crystal Bridges, Bentonville, AK; the Toronto Biennial; and Prospect.6, New Orleans, LA. Carlson’s work is held in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; National Gallery of Canada, Ontario; and British Museum, London, among others. Carlson is the recipient of a Creative Capital Award, United States Artists Fellowship, and Chicago Artadia Award. She is also co-founder of the Center for Native Futures, an art space dedicated to the work of Native artists in Chicago. She lives and works in Northern Minnesota.
Andrea Carlson
The Host, 2025
Sumi ink and gouache on paper
Overall: 46 x 180 inches / 116.8 x 457.2 cm
Assembled suite of twenty-four
Andrea Carlson
The Host, 2025
Detail
Andrea Carlson
Exquisite Bundle, 2025
Holbein gouache on paper
49 5/8 x 32 7/8 x 2 inches / 126 x 83.5 x 5.1 cm
Assembled suite of four
Andrea Carlson
Exquisite Bundle, 2025
Detail
Andrea Carlson
The Antagonist, 2025
Sumi ink and gouache on paper
49 5/8 x 32 7/8 x 2 inches / 126 x 83.5 x 5.1 cm
Assembled suite of four
Andrea Carlson
The Protagonist, 2025
Sumi ink and gouache on paper
49 5/8 x 32 7/8 x 2 inches / 126 x 83.5 x 5.1 cm
Assembled suite of four
Andrea Carlson
The Being at the Front of the Canoe, 2025
Sumi ink and gouache on paper
49 5/8 x 32 7/8 x 2 inches / 126 x 83.5 x 5.1 cm
Assembled suite of four
Andrea Carlson
The Being at the Front of the Canoe, 2025
Detail
Andrea Carlson
The Being at the Back of the Canoe, 2025
Sumi ink and gouache on paper
49 5/8 x 32 7/8 x 2 inches / 126 x 83.5 x 5.1 cm
Assembled suite of four
Andrea Carlson
The Being at the Back of the Canoe, 2025
Detail
Andrea Carlson
Low Relief Mound, 2025
White pine wood and poplar wood
(2 Columns) 60 x 7 inches / 152.4 x 17.8 cm, (4 Columns) 48 x 7 inches / 121.9 x 17.8 cm, (4 Columns) 36 x 7 inches / 91.4 x 17.8 cm, (4 Columns) 24 x 7 inches / 61 x 17.8 cm
Overall dimensions variable
Andrea Carlson
Perpetual Sarah, 2024
Oil, acrylic, gouache, graphite on paper
45 x 120 inches / 114.3 x 304.8 cm
ADDITIONAL WORKS
Andrea Carlson
New Shroud II, 2025
Acrylic and oil on canvas
37 5/8 x 25 5/8 x 2 1/8 inches / 95.6 x 65.1 x 5.4 cm
Andrea Carlson
New Shroud I, 2025
Acrylic and oil on canvas
37 5/8 x 25 5/8 x 2 1/8 inches / 95.6 x 65.1 x 5.4 cm
Andrea Carlson
L’Assomption Sash for Carrying Things that No Longer Exist #8, 2023
Gouache on paper
35 x 27 x 1 1/2 inches / 88.9 x 68.6 x 3.8 cm
Andrea Carlson
L’Assomption Sash for Carrying Things that No Longer Exist #9, 2023
Gouache on paper
35 x 27 x 1 1/2 inches / 88.9 x 68.6 x 3.8 cm
Andrea Carlson
L’Assomption Sash for Carrying Things that No Longer Exist #7, 2023
Gouache on paper
35 x 27 x 1 1/2 inches / 88.9 x 68.6 x 3.8 cm
Andrea Carlson
Perpetual Genre, 2024
Oil, acrylic, gouache, ink, color pencil, and graphite on paper
45 x 60 inches / 114.3 x 152.4 cm
Andrea Carlson
Unearthed Cannibal, 2024
Ink, oil, gouache and other media on paper
48 x 180 inches / 121.9 x 457.2 cm
Andrea Carlson
Ancestor and Descendant, 2023
Suite of 24, acrylic, ink, gouache and oil on paper
44 x 180 inches / 111.8 x 457.2 cm
EXHIBITIONS
PRESS
Prospect 6 Review: What Is an Exhibition’s Duty to Its Locality?
Andrea Carlson’s Frenetic Landscapes Channel Disjointed Histories and Deep Time
Andrea Carlson is at the center to showcase Native American arts
Artist Andrea Carlson’s work, including ‘Shimmer’ at the MCA, looks deeply into Indigenous dispossession
How Artist Andrea Carlson Heals Landscapes By Dismantling and Reassembling Them
VIDEOS
Andrea Carlson Discusses Her Artwork On View at the Denver Art Museum
Artist Talk: Andrea Carlson at the Kemper Museum
Artist Talk: Andrea Carlson & Eva Respini
Artist Talk with Andrea Carlson at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Andrea Carlson: Shimmer on Horizons
Public Conversation with Andrea Carlson and Tanya Lukin Linklater
Andrea Carlson Discusses Her Artwork On View at the Denver Art Museum
Artist Talk: Andrea Carlson at the Kemper Museum
Artist Talk: Andrea Carlson & Eva Respini
Artist Talk with Andrea Carlson at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Andrea Carlson: Shimmer on Horizons
Public Conversation with Andrea Carlson and Tanya Lukin Linklater
CV
Born 1979, USA
2005 MFA Minneapolis College of Art & Design
2003 BA University of Minnesota (Grand Portage Scholarship)
Lives and works in Northern Minnesota
Solo Exhibitions
2026
Endless Sunshine, Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis, MO [forthcoming]
2025
A Constant Sky, Denver Art Museum, CO
The Lasting, Jessica Silverman, San Francisco
Shimmer on Horizons, Kemper Art Museum, Kansas City, MO
A Painting is a Coin, The Goldfarb Gallery, Toronto, ON
2024
Shimmer on Horizons, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
Perpetual Sarah, Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
2022
Future Cache, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI
2020
Red Exit, Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
2017
Ravenous Eye, TCNJ Art Gallery, Ewing, NJ
2016
The Cannibal, Telemark Kunstsenter, Skein, Norway
Let, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
MASTHEAD, La Centrale at the Powerhouse, Montreal, QC
2014
EAT-ALL, Plug In Institute for Contemporary Art, Winnipeg, MB
INK BABEL, Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
2011
Fed to Pigs, St. John’s University, Collegeville, MN
VORE, Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
2010
VORE, Plains Art Museum, Fargo, ND
2009
The National Museum of the American Indian, New York, NY
2008
Earth Diver, Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025
A Living Collection, Tweed Art Museum, Duluth, NC [forthcoming]
Chronostasia, Loeb Art Center at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY
Site of Resistance, Center for Native Futures, Chicago, IL
From the Great Lakes to the Great Plains, Bemis Art Center, Omaha, NE
Indigenous Identities, Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ
Woven Being, The Block Museum, Evanston, IL
Smoke in Our Hair, The Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY
The Future is Present, The Harbinger is Home: Selections from Prospect. 6 New Orleans, Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, CO
The Future is Present, The Harbinger is Home, Prospect 6, New Orleans, LA
Still Here, National Public Housing Museum, Chicago, IL
2024
American Sunrise, Crystal Bridges, Bentonville, AK
Scientia Sexualis, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
EXIT, Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2023
The Land Carries Our Ancestors, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Inheritance, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Young Elder, James Fuentes Gallery, New York, NY
Femmenology, Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2022
Watershed, Alfred Taubman Gallery at University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor
Breaking Water, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH
A Divided Landscape, The Momentary, Bentonville, AK
Oh, Gods of Dust and Rainbows, Front Triennial, Cleveland, OH
What Water Knows, Land Remembers, Toronto Biennial, Toronto, ON
Snake whisky still life and other stories, Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, CA
2021
The Contemporary Print: 20 Years at Highpoint Editions, Minneapolis Institute of Art
A Shared Body, Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts, Tallahassee
Many Waters: A Minnesota Biennial, Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul
States of Collapse, Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina, SK
2020
Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists, Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK
Don’t let this be easy, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Never Done: 100 Years of Women in Politics and Beyond, Tang Museum at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
Reservoir, 019, Ghent, Belgium
Indelible Ink: Native Women, Printmaking, Collaboration, University of New Mexico Art Museum
The Beginning of Everything: An Exhibition of Drawings, Katherine E. Nash Gallery at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
2019
Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN
Art for a New Understanding, Nasher Museum at Duke University, Durham, NC
Art for a New Understanding, IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, NM
Transference: Printmakers in Mni Sota Makoce, Highpoint Center for Printmaking, Minneapolis, MN
2018
Intersections, Tweed Museum of Art, Duluth, MN
Art for a New Understanding, Crystal Bridges, Bentonville, AK
In Red Ink, Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, WA
Turtle Island, Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA
2017
Sinew: Female Native Artists of the Twin Cities, Tweed Museum of Art, Duluth, NC
Worlding, Kolman & Pryor Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
2016
From the Belly of Our Being, Oklahoma State University, Museum of Art
Arriving at Fresh Water, Plains Art Museum, Fargo, ND
Fierce Lament, FORM & CONTENT Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
Sinew, Artistry, Bloomington, MN
2015
Material Girls, Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina, SK
Arriving at Fresh Water, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
Superusted: Midwest Biennial, The Soap Factory, Minneapolis, MN
An Evening Redness in the West, Museum of Contemporary Native Art, Santa Fe, NM
2014
Seeing the Sky, The Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY
Weird Neighbor, Soo Local, Minneapolis, MN
2013
Before & After the Horizon, NMAI, George Gustav Haye Center, New York, NY
SAKAHAN, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON
2011
To What Earth Does This Sweet Cold Belong?, the Power Plant, Toronto, ON
2009
Rendezvoused: Andrea Carlson & Tom Jones, Venice, Italy
2008
McKnight Exhibition, Minneapolis College of Art & Design, Minneapolis, MN
2007
New Dreaming, The October Gallery, London, England
New Skins, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
Public Projects
2022
The Waves May Break Here Still, Garden Project, The Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL
2021
You are on Potawatomi Land, Banners on Chicago Riverwalk, DCASE, Chicago, IL
2020
RED EXIT, Whitney program in partnership with TF Cornerstone and High Line Art, New York, NY
2017
The Uncompromising Hand, Illuminate the Lock, presented by NorthernLights.mn, Mississippi Park Connection, the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, Minneapolis, MN
Selected Bibliography
2025
Scott, Chadd. “Andrea Carlson Firsts And ‘Lastings’ Across America.” Forbes. October 1, 2025.
Hoska, Dakota, D’Souza, Aruna, and Erdrich, Heidi. Andrea Carlson: A Constant Sky, Denver Art Museum (2025: Rizzoli, New York) [exh. cat].
Parks-Friedman, Shira. “Where shore meets horizon.” Chicago Reader. September 24, 2025.
Davis, Ben. “These 15 Artists Are the Biggest at U.S. Museums Right Now.” Artnet News. September 15, 2025.
McGrath, Katherine. “8 Artists Having a Breakout Moment This Fall.” Artsy. September 12, 2025.
Snodgrass, Susan. “Review: Andrea Carlson.” Artforum. February 2025.
Young, Allison K. “Prospect 6 Review: What Is an Exhibition’s Duty to Its Locality?” ArtReview. January 23, 2025.
2024
Waxman, Lori. “Review: Andrea Carlson’s art looks deeply into Indigenous Dispossession.” Chicago Tribune. October 15, 2024.
Berlatsky, Noah. “How Artist Andrea Carlson Heals Landscapes By Dismantling and Reassembling Them.” Observer. August 13, 2024.
Lybarger, Jeremy. “Expanding Horizons: Andrea Carlson’s frenetic landscapes double as decolonized territories.” Art in America. Winter 2024.
2021
Lee, JeeYeun. “‘Don’t look to my work for reconciliation’: A Conversation with Andrea Carlson.” Monument Lab Bulletin. July 26, 2021.
Whitepigeon, Monica. “Native in the Arts Spotlight: Visual Artist Andrea Carlson Talks About Her Chicago ‘You Are on Potawatomi Land’ Mural.” Native News Online. July 15, 2021.
Falco Raez, Constanza. “Andrea Carlson: Sacred is the loon with eye of wild and flashing crimson.” Flaunt Magazine. April 26, 2021.
2020
Regan, Sheila. “An Artist’s Vision Centers Indigenous Narratives and Spaces.” Hyperallergic. August 21, 2020.
Edrich, Heid E. Little Big Bully (2020: Penguin Random House, NY).
2019
Ross, Jenna. “Artists of the Year.” Chicago Star Tribune. January 6, 2020.
2018
Regan, Sheila. “Crystal Bridges Curator Mindy Besaw Shares 7 Unmissable Works from the Museum’s Landmark New Show of Native Art.” ArtNet News. November 5, 2018.
Besaw, Mindy N., Hopkins, Candice, and Well-Off-Man, Manuela. Art for a New Understanding Native Voices, 1950s to Now (2018: University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville, AR) [exh. cat].
2017
Rifkin, Mark. Beyond Settler Time: Temporal Sovereignty and Indigenous Self-Determination (2017: Duke University Press, Durham, NC).
Fellowships and Awards
2024
Creative Capital Award, New York, NY
2022
United States Artists Fellowship, Chicago, IL
2021
Artadia Award, Chicago, IL
2020
3Arts (Make a Wave), Chicago, IL
2017
Joan Mitchell Foundation, New York, NY
2016
Carolyn Foundation, Minneapolis, MN
2014
Artist Initiative Grant, Minnesota State Arts Board, St Paul, MN
2011
Artist Initiative Grant, Minnesota State Arts Board, St Paul, MN
2008
McKnight/MCAD Foundation Artist Fellowship, Minneapolis, MN
2006
Cultural Community Partnership Grant, Minnesota State Arts Board, St Paul, MN
Collections
Block Museum of Art, Evanston, IL
British Museum, London, UK
Davis Museum, Wellesley, MA
Denver Art Museum, CO
The Ford Foundation, New York
Forge Project, Tagkanic, NY
Mead Art Museum, Amherst, MA
Milwaukee Art Museum, IL
Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, IL
National Gallery of Canada, Ontario
Plains Museum of Art, Fargo, ND
Smart Museum of Art, Chicago, IL
Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS
Toledo Museum of Art, OH
Tweed Art Museum, Duluth, NC
University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor
Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY