Carla Stetson is a visual artist currently living and working in a barn built in 1840 that she converted into her studio and home on four acres near Ithaca, New York. Her work explores the tangled interrelationships between the wild and human in mixed media drawings, sculptures and installations.
Stetson received a Bachelor in Fine Arts degree in sculpture from the Kansas City Art Institute and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Vermont College. She recently retired as an Associate Professor of Art at Ithaca College in New York and works full time in her studio.
Previously, she lived in Duluth, Minnesota, where she is best known for her public art sculpture. The Duluth Peace Sculpture; the Great Lakes Aquarium Percent for Art Sculpture; and The Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial. This memorial is the first large scale memorial to victims of lynching in the United States.
Stetson’s residency awards include Draw International in Caylus, France; McColl Center for the Arts in Charlotte, North Carolina; Saltonstall Foundation in New York; the Jentel Foundation in Wyoming; and the Kimmel-Harding-Nelson Residency in Nebraska.
She has received fellowships and grants from the Puffin Foundation, Intermedia Arts, Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, the Minnesota State Arts Board and Ithaca College. Her work is included in several collections including the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, the Tweed Museum of Art in Duluth, Minnesota, the City of Duluth, Minnesota and Carolinas Health Care in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Selected Solo and Collaborative Exhibitions
2022 Making The Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial, Nordic Center, Duluth, Minnesota
2022 Knots, Webs and Entanglements, Tri-County Arts Council, Olean, New York
2018 Human Nature, Handwerker Gallery, Ithaca College, New York
2014 Natural Histories, Anderson Center for the Arts, Red Wing, Minnesota
2014 Aerial Reconnaissance, Handwerker Gallery, Ithaca College
2013 Confluence/Confluencia, collaborative with Cecilia Ramon, Duluth Art Institute, Minnesota
2011 Ornithography, Gallery at Found, Ithaca, New York
2010 Cecilia Ramon and Carla Stetson: Flight, Concordia University St. Paul
2008 Three Ways to Fly; Recent Work, Duluth Art Institute, Duluth, Minnesota
2008 Other Witnesses, Great River Arts Gallery, Little Falls, Minnesota
2007 Carla Stetson, New Work, Winthrop University, Rock Hill, South Carolina
2006 Skins of Ice and Other Thin Layers, Wood Gallery, Vermont College, Montpelier, Vermont
2005 The Red Line, North End Clay Center, Superior Wisconsin. Exterior installation
2003 A Bird in the Hand, Recent Work, J Pepper Art Gallery; Knife River, Minnesota
2003 The Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial: Public Art/Community Healing,
Tweed Museum of Art, Duluth, Minnesota
2002 The Secret Pattern of Things, Duluth Art Institute, Minnesota
Selected Juried and Invitational Group Exhibitions
2024 Eye Witness, Dowd Gallery, SUNY Cortland, New York 2023 68th Rochester-Fingerlakes Artists Exhibition, Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester. New York 2023 Drawing Discourse, University of North Carolina, Asheville 2022 Missing Objects, invitational exhibit, Kindness, Inc. Kansas City, Missouri
2022 Quartet, Corners Gallery, Ithaca, New York
2022 2022 Invitational Exhibit, State of the Art Gallery, Ithaca, New York
2021 Southern Tier Biennial, Olean, New York
2021 Ithaca College Art Faculty, CAP Artspace, Ithaca, New York
2020 Faculty Exhibition, executive hall of Peggy Ryan Williams Center, Ithaca College
2016 Resident Artists, DRAW International studios, Caylus, France
2016 Crossing Borders, Three Printmakers, Windsor Whip Works Gallery, New York
2015 Wide Open, Brooklyn Waterfront Artist Coalition, Brooklyn, New York
2015 National Photography Exhibition, Main Street Gallery, Cortland, New York
2014 Diverse Series, Handwerker Gallery, Ithaca College, Ithaca New York
2012 Mirror Images, Kreft Center for the Arts, Concordia University, Ann Arbor, Michigan
2012 Made in New York, Schweinfurth Art Center, Auburn, New York
2012 Inspiring Thousands, Roberson Museum, Binghamton, New York
2012 You Are Here, Faculty Exhibition, 2012, Handwerker Gallery, Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York
2011 Southern Tier Biennial, Olean, New York,
2011 Fourteenth International Open Exhibition, Woman Made Art Gallery, Chicago
2010 The Horse, Kinlaw Library Gallery, Asbury University, Kentucky
2010 Women Artists Invitational, George Waters Gallery, Elmira, New York
2010 Faculty Exhibition, 2010, Handwerker Gallery, Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York
2009 Mirando Al Sur, Woman Made Art Gallery, Chicago
2009 Quilts=Art=Quilts, Schweinfurth Art Center, Auburn, New York
2009 Collage and Assemblage, Schweinfurth Art Center, Auburn, New York
2008 National Photography Exhibition, Main Street Gallery, Groton, New York
2008 Ten artists, Washington Street Gallery, Duluth, Minnesota
2007 Duluth Art Institute Member’s Exhibition, Curator’s award
2007 Ten artists, Washington Street Gallery, Duluth, Minnesota
2007 MAC Picks, Minnetonka Art Center, Minnesota
2006 May Day on Broadway, North End Arts, Superior, Wisconsin.
2006 Selections from the Permanent Collection, Tweed Museum of Art, Duluth, Minnesota
2006 Artists in Residence. McColl Center for Visual Art, Charlotte, North Carolina
2006 Arrowhead Biennial, Duluth Art Institute, Minnesota
2004 Perspectives from America, Academia di Bella Arti; Palermo, Italy
2004 Arrowhead Biennial, Duluth Art Institute, Minnesota
2004 Golai, J Pepper Art Gallery, Knife River, Minnesota
2004 Seven Deadly Sins, Duluth Art Institute, Minnesota. Curator: David Hodges
2003 Membership Exhibition, Duluth Art Institute, Minnesota
2003 The American School Art Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya
2002 The Political Woman, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
2002 Annual Juried Exhibition, MacRostie Art Center, Grand Rapids, Minnesota
2000 New Acquisitions, Tweed Museum of Art, Duluth, Minnesota
2000 Arrowhead Biennial, Duluth Art Institute, Minnesota
Public Commissioned Work
2007 The Red Line, Rock Hill, South Carolina. Temporary installation with 150 red dresses.
2006 Climb. Montage for the Behavioral Treatment Program of Carolinas Healthcare, Charlotte, North
Carolina. Digital archival print with ink. Collaboration with teens in program. 30 x 60”
2003 The Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial. Duluth, Minnesota. Plaza and wall of cast concrete
with inscribed quotations edited by writer, Anthony Peyton Porter, 7’ tall bronze figures, paving,
landscaping, lights. 16’ at highest point, x 54 x 70’
2001 Language of Stone, Great Lakes Aquarium, Duluth, Minnesota. % for Art Commission.
Basalt boulder groupings with bronze and chrome, river rocks embedded in pavement.
1999 Arising. Lake Place, Duluth, Minnesota. Bronze, granite, dolomite. 14’x3 x7’
Collaboration with German artist, Almut Heer.
Selected Awards, Grants and Residencies
2023 Kimmel Harding Nelson Art Center, Nebraska City
2023 Finalist; NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Printmaking/Drawing/Book Arts
2021 Southern Tier Biennial, Olean, New York, Best in show
2021 Jentel Art Center Residency, Banner, Wyoming
2019 Saltonstall Residency and Grant, Ithaca, New York
2016 Summer Research Fellowship, Ithaca College
2016 DRAW International Artist Residency, Caylus, France
2013 Educational Grant Initiative Award, Ithaca College
2012 Educational Grant Initiative Award, Ithaca College
2012 Anderson Center, Red Wing, Minnesota, Residency Award
2007 Curator’s award. Duluth Art Institute Member’s Exhibition
2007 Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, Career Opportunity Grant
2006 McColl Center for Visual Arts, Charlotte, North Carolina, Artist in Residence Award recipient
2004 Artist of the Year Award. Depot Foundation, Duluth, Minnesota
2003 Puffin Foundation Grant
2003 Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, Artist Fellowship
2002 Minnesota State Arts Board Career Opportunity Grant
Selected Bibliography
Tim Anderson, “Intuitive Compositions,” The RipSaw News, April 3, 2002
Bill Chaisson, “Avian Organizing Principle, Carla Stetson’s ‘Ornithography’ at Found,” The Ithaca Times ,
October 5-11, 2011
Ryan Coonerty and Rebecca Highsmith, Etched in Stone, Enduring Words from our Nation’s
Monuments; National Geographic: 2007
Monica Davey, “It Did Happen Here: The Lynching That a City Forgot” New York Times, Dec. 4, 2003
Erika Doss, Memorial Mania, Public Feeling in America; University of Chicago Press: 2010
Joan Farnam, “The Secret Pattern of Things,” duluth.com newspaper, Feb. 27, 2002
Ann Klefstad, “To Dream of a New Kind of Making,” http://www.mnartists.org/article.do?rid=330196
March 1, 2013
Jim Ragsdale, “A Light in the World” St. Paul Pioneer Press, October 11, 2003
Scott Thistle, “A Celebration to Remember,” Duluth News Tribune, October 11, 2003
Tim Walker, “It Happened Here; Duluth Residents Face the Painful Lessons of a 1920 Lynching.”
Teaching Tolerance, Fall 2003, 48-55.
Arthur Whitman, “Uncommon Pairings,” Ithaca Times, November 7, 2018