Andrea Carlson: A Constant Sky

A Constant Sky is the first museum survey of mixed-media visual artist Andrea Carlson (descended from Grand Portage Ojibwe and European settlers, b. 1979). Carlson creates works that challenge the colonial narratives presented by modern artists, museum collections, and cannibal genre horror films. Utilizing a combination of text and complex visual references to animals, art objects, and cultural belongings, Carlson creates prismatic landscapes that foil American landscape genre painting.

Known for her intricate, colorful works drawn and painted with many different mediums, Carlson recently expanded her practice to include  sculpture. Columns for a Horizon, a monumental sculptural work, will be presented in the exhibition in two installations. The exhibition will also feature works on paper spanning her career and select large-scale paintings.

Carlson’s meticulous, multilayered art expands the narrative around how landscape and narrative function in a colonial space. By drawing objects from museum collections and placing them in her own landscapes, Carlson refuses the idea of a singular ownership and deconstructs what it means to be interpreted by others.

Andrea Carlson: A Constant Sky is organized by the Denver Art Museum. It is presented with generous support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and The Christensen Fund. The Ringling’s presentation is generously supported by a grant from Teiger Foundation.

Image: Andrea Carlson, Exit, 2018. Edition of 20. 21-layer screenprint on White Coventry Rag paper; 34 ½ x 47 ¾ in. Published by Highpoint Editions, Minneapolis. Collection of the artist. © 2018 Andrea Carlson, courtesy of the artist and Highpoint Editions.