Andrea Carlson: A Constant Sky
Andrea Carlson: A Constant Sky is the first major museum survey of Andrea Carlson, featuring multilayered paintings and sculptures that challenge colonial narratives and ideas of ownership. Through intricate, vividly colored landscapes that combine text, cultural objects, and imagery, the artist explores power, possession, and the role of museums in shaping history.
Bringing together approximately 30 works spanning painting, drawing, and sculpture, the exhibition traces Carlson’s practice of rendering imagery that examines how histories are constructed, contested, and remembered. A descendant of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe and European settlers, Carlson layers references to animals, artworks, and cultural belongings within richly imagined landscapes she describes as “inferred political space.” Newly commissioned sculptural works extend these themes, inviting visitors to consider ideas of access, refusal, and the ways museums shape relationships to colonization.
Support
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, The Christensen Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, the donors to the Annual Fund Leadership Campaign, and the residents who support the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD). Promotional support is provided by 5280 Magazine and CBS Colorado.
At the Nasher Museum, this exhibition is made possible by the Trent A. Carmichael Exhibitions Fund, Wallace Fowlie Endowment, Frank Edward Hanscom Endowment, Prakash & Anjali Melwani Fund for the Nasher Museum of Art, J. Horst & Ruth Mary Meyer Fund for the Nasher Museum, Nancy A. Nasher & David J. Haemisegger Family Fund for Exhibitions, A. Courtney Shives Endowment, K. Brantley & Maxine E. Watson Endowment, and The Derek & Christen Wilson Fund for the Nasher Museum of Art.
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Andrea Carlson (b. 1979), Ancestor and Descendant, 2023. Oil, acrylic, ink, color pencil, graphite, gouache, pastel, and watercolor on paper; 47 in. x 182 in. Collection of the artist. © and courtesy Andrea Carlson
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Andrea Carlson (b. 1979), Cannibal Ferox, 2008. Oil, acrylic, color pencil, graphite on paper; 45 1/2 x 61 in. Denver Art Museum: Native Arts acquisition funds and funds from the Ralph L. & Florence R. Burgess Trust, 2020.886A-D. © Andrea Carlson. Photo by Eric Stephenson, courtesy Denver Art Museum
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Andrea Carlson (b. 1979), The Poison that is its Own Cure, 2007. Oil, acrylic, ink, color pencil, and graphite on paper; 22 x 30 in. Courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman, San Francisco. © Andrea Carlson.
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Andrea Carlson (b. 1979), Truthiness, 2007. Oil, acrylic, ink, color pencil, and graphite on paper; 22 x 30 in. Courtesy of the artist. © Andrea Carlson.
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Andrea Carlson (b. 1979), Apocalypse Domani, 2010. Oil, acrylic, ink, color pencil, and graphite on paper; 45 1/2 x 61 in. (overall). Courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman, San Francisco. © Andrea Carlson
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Andrea Carlson (b. 1979), Do You Like Women, 2011. Oil, acrylic, ink, color pencil, and graphite on paper; 41 1/2 x 59 1/2 in. Bérénice Mettler, Private collection, San Francisco. © and courtesy Andrea Carlson.
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Andrea Carlson (b. 1979), 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
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Andrea Carlson (b. 1979), Anti-Retro, 2018. 19-layer screenprint on White Coventry Rag paper; 33 1/2 x 47 3/4 in. Published by Highpoint Editions, Minneapolis. Denver Art Museum: Native Arts acquisition funds and funds from the Ralph L. & Florence R. Burgess Trust, 2020.881. © Andrea Carlson, courtesy of the artist and Highpoint Editions. Photo by Christina Jackson, courtesy Denver Art Museum
