Featured Artist
David Carlson
USA
Grand Prize Award Recipient
Purchase Award Recipient
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David Carlson
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About
David Carlson
David Carlson, an artist based in Arlington, VA, was born in Champaign, Illinois, and spent his formative years in Illinois, Ohio, and Kentucky. His work explores the intersections of time, energy, composition, and the unknown. In his video art, Carlson often draws on imagery from the natural world, particularly water, reflecting the rhythms, emotions, and energies of human life. His paintings and digital works are featured in numerous private and corporate collections across the United States and internationally.
Artist Statement
My art is an exploration of subtle connection, the unseen. I follow philosophies rooted in Taoism and Buddhism which practice connectedness in all things and particularly between humanity and the natural world. The experience of something is more important that the narratives I tell myself. Through the language of abstraction, I seek to express deeper themes of connection, perception, and the ineffable. The goal is an exploration into that which is and that which is ongoing. Within structured boundaries, I navigate structures of balance and tension, obvious and surprise. Thick, tactile paint, translucent layers and diverse color intersect with veiling whites, and organic forms weaving through geometric shapes. This juxtaposition creates a visual dialogue that invites viewers to contemplate the interplay of opposites—structure and change, movement and stillness.
The dialogue that happens when I create a painting allows me to have a conversation between things I know and things I don’t. What I express is only half the picture. The other half, sitting, looking and contemplating what I’m seeing in the work is what interests me and says more about who I am as a human being. Most importantly the intuitive, not knowing what something will look like in the end is the process where painting morphs into a meditative practice. As I create, I explore nuances of experience, time, and place which become a reflection of this inquiry, embodying the dynamic nature of what we hold and what we let go. My work seeks to create spaces of pure experience—a gateway where viewers can encounter something beyond words or narrative, connecting with a sense of presence and contemplation. In essence, my work is a bridge between the seen and the unseen evoking mysteries and our place with each other and within the natural world.
David Carlson's paintings and digital works are represented in numerous collections, both private and corporate, national and international. Carlson has participated in artist exchanges with Central Asia, West and North Africa, and Europe. He has held over 25 solo exhibitions and has exhibited at venues including Riverviews Artspace in Lynchburg, VA; Black Mountain Center for the Arts in Black Mountain, NC; Fred Schnider Gallery in Arlington, VA; McLean Project for the Arts in McLean, VA; Cohn Drennan Contemporary in Dallas, TX; VIAP Galerie in Heerlen, Netherlands; the Korean Embassy Cultural Service in Washington, DC; Yunnan Art Institute in Kunming, PRC; and the Dakar Biennale in 2000 in Dakar, Senegal.
Selected Exhibitions:
Here, in this Little Bay
Kreeger Museum 30th Anniversary Exhibition
Curated by Kristen Hileman, Kreeger Museum, Washington, DC
FY 2025 Art Bank Program Finalist Exhibition
200 I (Eye) Street Gallery, SE, Washington, DC
Paintings from 2020 / 23
Curated by Lillian Fitzgerald, NIH, Bethesda, MD
Water Unspoken
- Riverviews Artspace, Lynchburg, VA
- Black Mountain Center for the Arts, Black Mountain, NC
Flattening Time
Fred Schnider Gallery, Arlington, VA
Out of My Mind
Fred Schnider Gallery, Arlington, VA
Water Unspoken
McLean Project for the Arts, McLean, VA
Confluence
Cohn Drennan Contemporary, Dallas, TX
Time Zones
Selected work from 2001–2013
National Women’s Democratic Club, Washington, DC
Black, White and Grey
Drawings from 1997
Black Rock Art Center, Germantown, MD
Formation of Being
Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VA
Five Minute God
Video Installation
Pyramid Atlantic, Silver Spring, MD
Instant
Cubist Photography
VIAP Galerie, Heerlen, Netherlands
Personal Geometry
Emerson Gallery, McLean Project for the Arts, McLean, VA
Monterey Rising
Anton Gallery at Hawthorne Mansion, Monterey, CA
Faces of the Fallen
Women’s Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA
Faculty Painting Exhibition
Marymount University, Arlington, VA
Artomatic
H and 3rd St. NE, Washington, DC
A Language of Pattern: Mali as Medium
McLean Project for the Arts, McLean, VA
Time Meditations
Korean Embassy Cultural Service, Washington, DC
Take Me to the River
MAC, Washington, DC
Abstract and Digital
Washington Gas Headquarters, Washington, DC
New Works
Yunnan Art Institute, Kunming, PRC
Infinite Interior
Anton Gallery, Washington, DC
Dakar Biennale 2000
‘The Off’ Dakar, Senegal
Fishing the Stream of Consciousness
AAC, Arlington, VA
Tashkent Biennale 2001
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Solo Show
DFA (District Fine Arts), Washington, DC
Custom Art Commission Request
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