Arden Carlson
Artist Site











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Woodworks
&
Drawings


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Bio: Arden Carlson (b. 1997) is a Kentucky-born maker who’s practice draws from craft, furniture, and surrealistic object-making. Working primarily in wood, Arden creates intimate forms that emphasize spirituality, play, and desire.

Arden holds an MFA in Sculpture from the University of Arkansas. Recent 2025 residencies include the Museum for Art In Wood’s Windgate Arts Residency Program and The Wassaic Project.  

Currently, they’re the 26-27 wood artist in residence at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, with a forthcoming residency at Anderson Ranch Art Center in wood and furniture design.
          











          
                      

         
 
desire field unfolded                        

           Basswood, maple, ash, oak            

           62 L x 10 W x 13 H in.                   

           July 2025                                           

          Photo Credit: John Carlano           


           
















           Left:

           angel’s desk

           Pine, Poplar, Basswood, Maple, Found Wood

           24 L x 11.5 W x 35 H in.

           June 2025

           Photo Credit: John Carlano




          Right:

           tying the ends to the center

           Basswood, Maple, Ash

           16 H x 11 W in.

           July 2025

           Photo Credit: John Carlano
















tree fork chair

 Maple, Ash, Found Wood

18 L x 18 W x 32 H in

July 2025


 Tree fork chair is a variation of the stick chair — a vernacular form of furniture having typically been made by farmers and the like. The backrest is a wishbone carved from a tree fork collected off the banks of the Delaware river.

Project supported by the Museum for Art in Wood and NextFab in Philadelphia, PA.
                                             







 














 

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In an effort to create a deeper, wider universe of objects — I generally attend to one body of work at a time. It’s interesting how surface treatment and form become the unifying language of this body, resulting from the labor and conscious of the current questioning hand.

I focus largely on hand tools because of their capability to create a clearly touched surface. To me, this resulting texture is a loud sensation - making a still object feel quite energetic due to excessive mark making.



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                        particle flower

                        Basswood

                       17 L x 2 W x 5 H in.             

                       June 2025

                       Photo Credit: John Carlano




         





















           Suitcase

            Pine, Maple

           18 L x 12 W x 7 H in.

            June 2024

           Documention Photo Credit: John Carlano
    
            Portrait Credit: Shannon Smith












               This suitcase is a fully functioning, wooden-hinged box complete with pine paneling and maple hardware. (Splines and wooden hinges) Object created with funding and support from the Eureka Springs School of the Arts in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.











       
                              untitled drawing
    
               poplar, basswood, ply

               18 1/4 H x 25 3/4 W

               July 2025

               Photo Credit: John Carlano





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My affinity for craft stems from a rural Kentucky upbringing, where I roamed the woods and watched my father, from the bottom of the ladder, building one house after another. It was here that I acquired a language for wood: understanding that each object begans as the trunk of a tree - and it might be in the maker’s favor to regard such a ‘time-centric growth’ throughout any process of transformation.

Woodworking is a vehicle to explore these enchantments with transformations - whether that be in form or spirit or purpose.



Drawing from this upbringing in the American South, I’ve often employed domestic or rural motifs as points of departure, reinterpreting them through abstraction to question how identity and desire are embedded within the built environment.

In recent work, I have shifted from constructing instantly recognizable objects—a radio, a fence line, a bird in flight—toward more ambiguous objects. These new forms have a certain “hard-to-place-ness”, inviting personal contemplation and an exploration of more interior modes of thinking; a shift drawn by the legacy of surrealism amongst intensive social structures.











Previous work
2024

2023



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Lore
2024-25
The SLIT, Los Angeles CA


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