Mary Carlson has been making her art for close to 50 years. Using a wide range of mediums, materials and subject matter: making everything from hand-sewn American flags, a giant crocheted pink octopus, carved life-sized trees to 'altered' furniture.
Her current medium of choice is hand-built porcelain, with glazes formulated and fired in her Walton, New York studio. She has created a ‘saints and demons’ series based on depictions of heaven and hell found in Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts and paintings. Described by The New York Times as ‘wonderfully soulful’ and ‘as spiritually infectious as they are appealing,’ she finds this imagery inspiring, meaningful, and still relevant in our times.
A Guggenheim, Tiffany, NEA, and NYFA award-recipient, Mary's work was first shown in New York at Leo Castelli Gallery in 1985. She has also shown in the 1995 Venice Biennale, Kunsthalle Wein; Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin; the New Museum; the Aldrich Museum and numerous galleries in New York and around the country. Most recently she was awarded a fellowship at Civitella Ranieri, Italy for September 2021.
AWARDS
2021 • Civitella Ranieri Foundation Residency
2015 • Tiffany Foundation Grant
2007 • New York Foundation for the Arts Grant
1993 • John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (sculpture)
1988 • National Endowment for the Arts (sculpture)
SOLO SHOWS
2020 • Eden, Kerry Schuss Gallery, NYC
2016 • Demons, Elizabeth Harris Gallery, NYC
2014 • Paradise, Elizabeth Harris Gallery, NYC
2012 • Beautiful Beast, Studio 10, Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY
2010 • Faded Flag, Art/Omi, Ghent, NY
2010 • Flags, Plates & Demons, Elizabeth Harris Gallery, NYC
2010 • Faded Flag, Brooklyn Campus of Long Island University, Brooklyn
2001 • The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, Bill Maynes Gallery, NY
1999 • From Nature, Bill Maynes Gallery, New York
1997 • Bill Maynes Gallery, New York
1996 • Bill Maynes Contemporary Art, New York
1994 • Holly Solomon, New York
1992 • Max Protetch Gallery, New York
1987 • Michael Klein, inc., New York
1986 • Curt Marcus Gallery, New York
2 PERSON EXHIBITION
2019 • Mary Carlson and Jim Torok , Catskill Art Society, Livingston Manor, NY
GROUP SHOWS
2021 • Summer Love, Art Sales and Research, Clinton, NY
2021 • Churchy, Liberal Arts Gallery, Roxbury, NY
2021 • Anarchy of the Imagination, Kerry Schuss Gallery, NYC, curated by Ryan Foerster
2021• Speaking Tree, Candice Madey Gallery, NYC
2019 • Algus, Carlson, Moskowitz, Kerry Schuss Gallery, NYC
2019 • It’s Necessary to Talk about Trees, curated by Candice Madey, at River Valley Arts Collective, Catskill, NY.
2018 • Pageant of Inconceivable, Rachel Uffner Gallery, NYC
2018 • Summertime, Tibor de Nagy, NYC
2018 • Heaven and Earth, Drive-By Projects, Watertown, MA
2018 • Pageant of Inconceivable, Kleinert/James Center for the Arts, Woodstock, NY curated by Portia Munson and Katharine Umsted
2016 • Fish Tank, LUI Humanities Gallery, curated by Matt Freedman and Finnan Boyle, Brooklyn, NY
2016 • Chasing the Rose, The Dutch Barn, Clinton Corners, NY
2016 • Conference of Birds, Shirley Fiterman Art Center, curated by Brenda Zlamany, Borough of Manhattan Community College, NYC
2014 • 20th Anniversary Show, Pierogi Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2014 • Pressed Flowers, curated by Catherine Howe, Lesley Heller Gallery, NYC
2012 • Rockslide Sky, curated by Carleen Sheehan, Fordham University at Lincoln Center, NYC
2012 • Modern Times, curated by Shari Mendelson, Lesley Heller Gallery, NYC
2012 • Text, Studio 10, Brooklyn, NY
2012 • Textility, Visual Arts Center of New Jersey
2012 • Spring in Boston, Drive-By Gallery, Watertown, MA
2012 • Sculpture, Big, Small and Casual Gallery, Long Island City, NY
2011 • Spiral Bound, curated by Howard Foster, UC San Diego, CA
2011 • Flag Day, Islip Museum, Islip Long Island, NY, curated by Janet Goleas
2010 • Teacup Show, Rose Burlingham and Turtle Point Press, New York City
2010 • Poisoned Apples, curated by Monroe Denton, Fredereike Taylor Gallery, NYC
2010 • Cognitive Consciousness, Lesley Heller Gallery, curated by Robert Walden, NYC
2009 • By a Thread, Elizabeth Harris Gallery, curated by Miles Manning, New York City
2009 • Twin, Twin, curated by Matt Freedman, Big, Small Casual Gallery, Long Island City
2009 • Deaccession, curated by Amanda Sheck and Philae Knight, FLAG Foundation, NYC
2009 • Laura Newman and Mary Carlson, Big, Small Casual Gallery, Long Island City
2008 • Pulse Art Fair, New York Foundation for the Arts booth, New York City
2007 • Group Show, Rose Burlingham & Lindsey Brown, Clinton Corners, New York
2006 • Color Correction, Roger Smith Hotel, NYC
2006 • B Side, Sarah Bowen Gallery, Brooklyn, NYC
2005 • Monochrome, Elizabeth Harris Gallery, NYC
2005 • Somewhere Outside It, Schroeder/Romaro, Brooklyn
2005 • Synthesis and Distribution: Experiments in Collaboration, Pace University, NYC
2005 • Ripe for Picking, Jim Kempner, New York City
2004 • Power T’s, Pierogi Gallery and Four Walls, Brooklyn
2003 • Pins and Needles, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI
2003 • Water, Water, curated by Lilly Wei, Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2003 • Williamsburg Salon, Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, CT
2003 • Vessels, curated by Joe Fyfe, Jane Hartsook Gallery, Greenwich House Pottery, NYC
2001 • Brooklyn, Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, Lake Worth, FL
2001 • Sculpture, Flipside Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2001 • Wonderland, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston (catalog)
2001 • Collecting Ideas:Works for the Polly and Mark Addison Collection, Denver Art Museum
2000 • Snapshot, Contemporary Museum, Baltimore
2000 • Galerie Brigitte Weiss, Zurich, Switzerland
2000 • Ethereal and Material, Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Wilmington
2000 • Muscle: Power of the View, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art
2000 • Quirky, Adam Baumgold Gallery, New York City
2000 • Gallery Artists, Bill Maynes Gallery, New York City
1999 • Skin, Deste Foundation, Athens, Greece
1999 • Avoiding Objects, Apex Art, New York City
1999 • Lab Works, Islip Art Museum, Islip, New York
1998 • Conversation – Gregory Botts and Mary Carlson, Art Resources Transfer, NYC
1998 • Surreal Pop – Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut
1998 • A.R.T., Vedanta Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
1997 • Engel, Engel, Kunsthalle am Wien, Vienna, Austria and Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech Republic
1997 • Projects.doc, Shiffler Collection, Cincinnati, Ohio
1996 • Shirts & Skins, Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii
1996 • SculptureCenter at Roosevelt Island, SculptureCenter, New York City
1996 • Body Language - New York, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida
1996 • Thin Air: Examining the Ethereal, Elsa Mott Ives Gallery, New York City
1995 • Identia e Alterita, Venice Biennale, Museo Correr, Venice, Italy
1995 • …It’s How You Play the Game, Exit Art/The First World, New York
1995 • More Than Real, Gallery 404, University of Illinois, Chicago
1995 • Susan Inglett Gallery, Gramercy Park Hotel, New York
1994 • Created/Mutated, Dru Arstark Gallery, New York
1994 • Material Concerns, Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn
1994 • Whateva, Dru Arstark Gallery, New York
1993 • Exquisite Corpse, Drawing Center, New York
1993 • Artists’; Early Work, Max Protetch Gallery, New York
1993 • Group Show, Cheryl Haines Gallery, San Francisco
1993 • Clothing as Metaphor, The Art Museum, Florida International University, Miami
1993 • Mapping: An Index of Experience, Germans van Eck, New York
1993 • Patently Missing, Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston
1993 • Bodily, Penine Hart Gallery, New York
1992 • Getting to kNOw you, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin and Stadtisches Kaufhaus, Leipzig, Germany
1992 • A New American Flag, Max Protetch Gallery, New York
1991 • The Interrupted Life, The New Museum, New York
1990 • Something Strange, White Columns, New York
1990 • Blood Remembering, Newhouse Gallery, Snug Harbor, Staten Island
1990 • Death and Desire, Tom Cugliani Gallery, New York
1989 • Psychological Abstraction, Deste Foundation, Athens, Greece
1988 • Ironic Abstraction, University Art Galleries, University of South Florida, Tampa
1988 • Window Installation, Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York
1988 • Desired Paths, Outdoor Sculpture at Schulman Park, White Plains, New York
1988 • Shape as Form, Penine Hart Gallery, New York
1987 • The Level of Volume, Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
1986 • Group Show, Lang & O’Hara Gallery, New York
1986 • Emerging Artists 1986, Cleveland Center of Contemporary Art, Cleveland
1986 • New Sculpture, Michael Klein, inc., New York
1985 • Summer Selection, Castelli Uptown Gallery, New York
1985 • New Art, Modernism Gallery, San Francisco
1985 • Appropriations: Black & White, Vanguard Gallery, Philadelphia
PRESS
Will Heinrich, Critics Notebook, New York Times, October 15, 2020 view
Andrea K Scott, Art, The New Yorker, October 26, 2020
Stephen Maine, Mary Carlsons Favorite Demons - What does evil look like? Hyperallergic.com link
Romanov Graves, Mary Carlson - Studio Visit, Friday, January 2, 2015 link
New York Times, Ken Johnson, Art in Review: Paradise, May 29, 2014 view
New York Magazine, Jerry Saltz, "To Do", June 4, 2014 view
Bomb, Beautiful Big Blue Beast, Jane Dickson interviews Mary Carlson, Oct 23, 2012 link
Paul D'Agostino, Art Picks, L Magazine, October 25, 2012
Brody, David, Lady MacBeth's Fingernail Polish, Mary Carlson at Studio 10, ArtCritical, November 18, 2012 link
Foster, Howard, Romanov Grave, December 27, 2010 view
Perreault, John, Artopia - May 2010 (review starts half way down the page) view
Kalm, James, "Faded Flag", video of opening at Long Island University, May 2010 link
Johnson, Ken, "The Listing", New York Times, April 21, 2006 view
Conner, Jill, artnet.com, 6/10/2006 link
Mueller, Stephen, Gay City News,"Personal Statements in Just One Color", June 23 - 29, 2005 view
Johnson, Ken, "The Listing", New York Times, July 22, 2005 view
Barone, Mary. "Out with Mary", Artnet, Nov 11, 2005
Auer, James."Arts center goes its own way", Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, November 25, 2003
Conner, Jill. artnet.com, 3/10/2003 link
Robinson, Walter. artnet.com link
Gomez, Edward M. "Taking the Spirit of Brooklyn on a Florida Vacation", The New York Times, Sunday, September 26, 2001 view
Johnson, Ken. "Art in Review", The New York Times, Friday, April, 2001 link
Temin, Christine, "Imagination Runs Wild in ‘Wonderland", The Boston Globe, January 30, 2001
.Etheral and Material, exhibition catalog, Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, September 21 - November 21, 2000.
Kino, Carol. "Mary Carlson at Bill Maynes", Art in America, February, 2000 view
Omlin, Sibylle, “Nicht nach der Nature, “Neue Zurcher Zeitung, January 12, 2000.
Robinson, Walter, artnet.com, 6/9/1999 link
Art Galleries", The Village Voice, June 1, 1999
Schmerler, Sarah. "Avoiding Objects", Time Out New York, February 4-11, 1999 (illustrated).
Harrison, Helen A. "In Islip, Experimentation and Installation," The New York Times, August 29, 1999.
Robinson, Walter. artnet.com, 10/2/1998 link
Drolet, Owen. "Mary Carlson - Bill Maynes", Flash Art, May-June 1998
Schaffner, Ingrid. "Mary Carlson at Bill Maynes", ArtForum, May 1998 view
Pop Surrealism, exhibition catalogue, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connection, 1998
Nahas, Dominique. "Review", Mary Carlson, December 1, 1997 view
Pilcher, Cathrin, Editor. :Engel:Engel, Legenden der Gegenwart, exhibition catalog, Kunsthalle Wien, Springer Wien/New York publishers, 1997.
Gluck, Grace "Art Guide ", The New York Times, Friday, November 28, 1997
Denton Monroe. Mary Carlson: Furnished, exhibition catalogue, Bill Maynes Contemporary Art, New York, February 1996.
Princenthal, Nancy. "Mary Carlson at Bill Maynes", Art in America, November 1996 view
.Body Language, exhibition catalogue, Museum of Fine Arts, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, October 1996.
Cotter, Holland, "Art in Review", The New York Times, Friday, March 1, 1996 view
Identita e Alterita: Figures of the Body 1895/1995, exhibition catalogue, la Biennale di Venezia. Marsilio Editori, June 1995
Smith, Roberta, "The New, Irreverent Approach to Mounting Exhibitions,"The New York Times, January 6, 1995
Wallach, Amei, "Dialogue Among Curators Is a Mind Game With Art", Newsday, December 30, 1994 view
Levin, Kim, "Choices", The Village Voice, December 27, 1994
Larson, Kay. Clothing as Metaphor, exhibition catalogue, The Art Museum, Florida International University, Miami, January 1993.
Cottingham, Laura. "getting to kNOw you: Sexual Insurrection and Resistance", Neue Bildende Kunst
.Getting to Know You: Sexual Insurrection and Resistance, exhibition catalogue, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin; Spring 1993.
Cotter, Holland. "Art in Review", The New York Times, Friday, April 10, 1992 view
."Goings on about Town", The New Yorker, April 6, 1992
.The Interrupted Life, exhibition catalogue, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, September 1991.
.Listings in The New York Times
Faust, Gretchen. "New York in Review", Arts Magazine, February 1991
Zimmer, William. "Everyday Expectations with a Twist", The New York Times, December 23, 1990
Deitch, Jeffrey. Psychological Abstraction, exhibition catalogue, Deste Foundation, Athens, Greece, July 1989.
Rinder, Larry. "Corporate Culture", Manhattan, Inc., February 1987
Cameron, Dan. "Ten to watch", Arts Magazine, September 1986 view
Brenson, Michael. "Participation in the Cultural Zoo", The New York Times May 30, 1986