Michele Carlson
George Washington University
Michele Carlson was born in Seoul, Korea and raised in Seattle, Washington. She is a multidisciplinary practitioner working across the fields of art, writing, publishing, and collective practice. She is formally trained as a printmaker but works across many mediums and approaches. Her visual work has been exhibited nationally at the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, Korean Cultural Center LA, Cerasoli Gallery LA, and Kearny Street Workshop. She has received residencies at Vermont Studio Center, Kala Art Institute, and Montalvo Center for the Arts. In her visual work, Carlson engages imaginative ways that humans collect, work together, and particularly explores the impact they have on one another. This speculative work partners with the work she does as one of three members of the arts collective Related Tactics (w/Weston Teruya and Nathan Watson).
Carlson began building her multidisciplinary practice in her undergraduate studies at the University of Washington where she received degrees in Printmaking (BFA), Interdisciplinary Visual Arts (BA), and History (BA). Her making and writing practice was further developed at the California College of the Arts where she earned her graduate degrees in Printmaking (MFA) and Visual and Critical Studies (MA). Carlson’s critical writings on art and culture can be found in numerous publications including KQED, Art in America, Hyphen, and Afterimage. She is currently working on a manuscript titled The Visits, which examines the way kinship and family are constructed set against the backdrop of incarceration and transnational adoption. This project has supported by the San Leandro Arts Commission individual artist grants, Kearny Street Workshop, and the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts.
Carlson’s broader practice demonstrates a commitment to amplifying underrepresented voices. From time to time this manifests in curatorial practice or editorial and publishing work. She has organized exhibitions at Southern Exposure (San Francisco, CA) and ProArts Gallery (Oakland, CA). From 2016-19 she was the Executive Director at Art Practical, a West Coast arts media and publishing organization based in San Francisco, CA and from 2011-2016 volunteered with Hyphen’s editorial and leadership community.
She currently lives and works in the Washington DC-area and is Associate Professor of Printmaking at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at the George Washington University.