Image: Andrea Carlson (Ojibwe), ‘Endless Sunshine, Beginning’, assembled suite of twelve, sumi ink, oil, colored pencil, archival spray varnish, ink and gouache on paper and birch bark, 46 × 90 in. Courtesy the artist and the Gochman Collection
Andrea Carlson’s multidisciplinary exhibition ‘Absent Host’ will be on view across both the Van Every and Smith galleries in the Belk Visual Arts Center at Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, from October 8, 2026, through February 7, 2027. The show brings together painting, sculpture and video by the Ojibwe artist, whose work addresses Indigenous sovereignty, land, memory and belonging.
Carlson’s practice draws on lived experience, intergenerational storytelling, archival research, and the histories of art and film. According to the exhibition materials, it challenges colonial narratives and the ways Indigenous histories and perspectives have been represented, stereotyped, romanticized and erased. Born in 1979 and raised in northern Minnesota, where she still lives and works, Carlson is described by the galleries as rooted in her Ojibwe heritage.
The exhibition includes ‘Endless Sunshine, Beginning,’ an assembled suite of twelve in sumi ink, oil, colored pencil, archival spray varnish, ink and gouache on paper and birch bark, measuring 46 by 90 inches, courtesy of the artist and the Gochman Collection. ‘The Indifference of Fire,’ 46 by 182 inches, is made with oil, acrylic, gouache, ink, colored pencil and graphite on paper and is also lent courtesy of the artist and the Gochman Collection. ‘Exquisite Bundle,’ an assembled suite of four in Holbein gouache on paper measuring 49 5/8 by 32 7/8 by 2 inches, comes courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman.
Carlson earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota and an MFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Her recent solo exhibitions have included presentations at the Denver Art Museum, the Kemper Art Museum in Kansas City, the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor. Her work is held in collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Walker Art Center, the Cleveland Museum of Art, MCA Chicago, the Hessel Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Canada and the British Museum. She has received a Creative Capital Award, a United States Artists Fellowship and a Chicago Artadia Award, and co-founded the Center for Native Futures, an art space in Chicago dedicated to Native artists.
Programming begins with an artist lecture on Wednesday, October 14, from 6 to 7 p.m. in Semans Lecture Hall, followed by an opening reception from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the galleries. The galleries list the talk as part of DÚTA BAHIISERE KUS RÁ’HERE (We Know Corn Together), a collaboration between the Catawba Nation, the Galleries, the College Farm, the Sustainability Office and the departments of Biology, Environmental Studies and History. The exhibition and its programs are supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Herb Jackson and Laura Grosch Gallery Fund, and Davidson College Friends of the Arts.
Admission is free. The galleries are open Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesdays until 7 p.m., and weekends from noon to 4 p.m., and are closed or open by appointment during college breaks, including November 21 to 29, 2026, and December 19, 2026 to January 3, 2027.
