Michele Carlson

Bio

Michele Carlson is a multidisciplinary practitioner working across the fields of art, writing, publishing, and collective practice.

Carlson is one of three founding members of the arts collective Related Tactics, which facilitates projects at the intersection of race, art, and culture. Their projects have been supported by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Chinese Cultural Center of San Francisco, Berkeley Art Center, Kellen Gallery (New York, NY), Augusta University, and Southern Exposure’s Alternative Exposure grant program.

Carlson’s curatorial work, exhibited at Southern Exposure (San Francisco, CA) and ProArts Gallery (Oakland, CA) have been reviewed in the San Francisco Chronicle, Art Papers, KQED Arts, Art Practical, and East Bay Express.  

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 taught at California College of the Arts. She currently lives and works in the Washington DC-area and is Associate Professor of Printmaking at the Corcoran School or Art and Design at George Washington University.

Exhibitions

As an artist, Carlson's 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.

Publications

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 was recently supported by the San Leandro Arts Commission individual artist grants.