Andrea Carlson facts for kids

Andrea Carlson is an American artist born in 1979. She creates art using many different materials. She lives in Chicago but also works a lot in Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Learning and Art Education

Andrea Carlson is a member of the Grand Portage Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. She studied art and American Indian studies at the University of Minnesota. She earned her first degree in 2003. She has said that learning the Ojibwe language was a very important gift. In 2005, she earned a master's degree in Visual Studies from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

Andrea Carlson's Art Journey

Carlson's art is inspired by her background. She has Anishinaabe, French, and Scandinavian family roots. She uses these influences to explore ideas about culture and how stories shape us. Her father, who was a painter, taught her to draw and paint when she was very young. This early support made her feel confident that her art would be understood.

Carlson often creates her art on paper. She uses many materials like acrylic and oil paint, watercolor, and pencils. Her artworks are often large. She mixes realistic pictures with abstract patterns. This creates a world that feels both familiar and new.

Carlson also thinks about how museums show cultural objects. She believes museums should change how they present history. She points out that many museum items were collected during times of invasion or colonization. She challenges museums to tell these stories more accurately. She says, "If you have everyone's objects, you have to tell the story for the objects."

Carlson uses the idea of "consuming" or "taking over" cultures in her art. Her "VORE" series explores how cultures can be exploited. She uses images from museum collections. These images float over colorful backgrounds. Her art makes viewers think about how objects tell stories. It also shows how power and authority are shared through storytelling.

Her work has been shown in many places. She has also received several awards. These include the Minnesota State Arts Board fellowship in 2006.

One famous painting from her VORE series is Sunshine on a Cannibal. She made it in 2015. It is a large horizontal painting. She used oil, acrylic, ink, and colored pencil. She layered small images from Native American art and European paintings. These images form a pyramid shape in the center. This pyramid represents how Western cultures sometimes highlight "exotic" cultures. But at the same time, they try to make them disappear through assimilation.

Main Ideas in Her Art

Andrea Carlson's art often talks about "entangled cultural narratives." She also explores how stereotypes affect Indigenous peoples. She says that if Indigenous cultures change, some people see them as "unauthentic." This can make cultures disappear.

For example, her print Exit (2019) shows a fear of losing cultural practices. The exit sign in the print represents this fear. Many symbols in her art also refer to Indigenous creations. These creations have sometimes been wrongly used by others.

Carlson also gets ideas from movies. In some artworks, she uses movie styles. She wants viewers to look closely at what they see. She encourages them to think about how they are seeing it.

Art Shows and Collections

Carlson's art has been part of many group exhibitions:

• 2020-21: Don't Let This Be Easy at Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN.
• 2019–21: Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists, a traveling show. It was at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Frist Art Museum, Renwick Gallery (part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum), and Philbrook Museum of Art.
• 2018–19: Art for a New Understanding: Native Voices, 1950s to Now at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR.

Her artwork is also kept in important museum collections. These include the Walker Art Center, Weisman Art Museum, the British Museum, and the National Gallery of Canada.