Michele Carlson is a practicing artist, writer, educator,
and curator whose interdisciplinary research investigates the intersections of
history, memory, loss, race, and popular culture. Carlson was born in Seoul, Korea, but grew up in Seattle, WA
and attended the University of Washington where she received a BFA in
Printmaking and BAs in Interdisciplinary Visual Arts and History. After her
undergraduate work, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where she completed
an MFA in Printmaking and MA in Visual & Critical Studies from the
California College of the Arts.
Her visual work, primarily works on paper, has been
exhibited nationally at venues including Patricia Sweetow Gallery, the San
Francisco Arts Commission, Intersection for the Arts, and Cerasoli Gallery, Los
Angeles. She has received awards and fellowships from Kala Art Institute, San
Francisco Arts Commission, and the Reader’s Digest Museum Foundation. Her
critical writings and creative writings have been published in numerous publications
including Art in America, Art Practical, and Afterimage and
various exhibition catalogs. She is a regular contributor for KQED Arts where she writes about art and
digital culture.
In addition to her visual work
and writing practices, Carlson is an editor for Hyphen’s, a national print and online publication focusing on Asian
American culture and politics. She is a member of the Curatorial Committee at
Southern Exposure, in San Francisco, where she recently co-curated an
exhibition titled Reverse Rehearsals,
which was an iterative collaboration between 18 artists and writers.
She is currently an Adjunct Professor in the MFA Fine Arts
and Visual and Critical Studies departments at California College of the Arts.
She also teaches undergraduate courses in Asian American studies, studio arts,
art history and visual studies at University of California, Davis and several
other San Francisco Bay Area colleges.
