drawing

Andrea Carlson (b. 1979) is a visual artist currently living in Chicago, Illinois. Through painting and drawing, Carlson cites entangled cultural narratives and institutional authority relating to objects based on the merit of possession and display. Current research activities include Indigenous Futurism and assimilation metaphors in film. Her work has been acquired by institutions such as the British Museum, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the National Gallery of Canada. Carlson hold an MFA from MCAD. She was a 2008 McKnight Fellow and a 2017 Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors grant recipient. In 2020, Carlson helped form the Center for Native Futures, the only Native art center in Chicago.

Language—both spoken and written—has, is, and always will be susceptible to spin, manipulation, obfuscation, and misinterpretation. This paper explores how communication's inherent vulnerability has long formed the core of my conceptual inquiry. As a visual artist, I am a tireless experimenter—with both ideas and materials. The foundation of my interdisciplinary practice is my artist's books, which have been referred to as "patchwork quilts of the subconscious." Projects related to my book practice include performance videos along with text-based drawings, paintings, and sculpture that may be characterized as both personal and social critiques. As the inherent nature of humans remains impulsive and fallible, these works may illuminate our unconscious reluctance to convert rational awareness into a more positive and sustainable life practice. My final thesis project will demonstrate emboldened approaches to these facets of my practice. I will present up to thirty new artist's book entries, a dozen new hand-sculpted UNBOUND book prints (up to 7 x 10 feet), five new text-based works on paper and canvas, and one new wall sculpture fabricated in mirrored stainless steel.

My work investigates narrative through elements of cinematic and photographic storytelling. I create illustrations that draw from symbolic languages to recontextualize the meaning of photographic imagery through the use of ink and paper. My thesis explores the symbolism of objects as they relate to one another in thematic collections and utilizes a rhythmic composition to shift their relational context within a given piece. I'm interested in collection as it relates to objects and associated meanings. A collection is an accumulation of items that are brought together with the intention of bringing order to otherwise isolated elements of a visual group. Objects that lead a solitary existence are reduced to the nature of their being and function, but when existing as part of a collection, their interrelations bring them into contextual symmetry and they function as category or an area of study. I am a collector because it allows me a sense of control and understanding about the world around me and my place in it. Every item in my collection bears a status and a meaning, and I want to develop and expand that meaning through my thesis work.