TOM CARLSON

American, born 1957

Education: BFA, Studio Art, Sculpture Emphasis, 1979, Missouri State University

Resides in St. Louis, Missouri. Until recently resided in Tempe, Arizona.

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Tom Carlson grew up in and was a longtime resident of the St. Louis, Missouri, metropolitan area. The first spark of his artistic journey was in the 7th grade when he had an inspirational junior high art teacher and he attended a large traveling exhibition of Vincent Van Gogh's work at the St. Louis Art Museum, the last time many of these paintings have been seen outside of Amsterdam. It was then that he realized the possibilities of a lifetime working in the creative fields.

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He attended what was then Southwest Missouri State University (now simply "Missouri State") in Springfield studying sculpture, drawing, printmaking and painting, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1979.

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After graduation, Carlson moved back to the St. Louis area, and like so many artists in the early '80s, began working on music, eventually becoming a live-sound technician for several punk, new wave and reggae bands and clubs. Needing an income, he joined the then-growing St. Louis alternative weekly Riverfront Times in the graphic design department.

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By the late 1980s, Carlson rose to the position of art director at that publication, eventually serving as art director for other urban alt-weeklies including the Village Voice (NYC), New Times (Phoenix), Metro Times (Detroit), and serving as design/creative director for those publications' parent companies, Voice Media Group and Euclid Media Group, winning numerous design awards and contributing illustration, photography and videography to those publications. See some of that work at tomcarlsondesign.com.

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Throughout that time, he would also periodically flex his painting muscle when time and space would allow, but often there was not enough of either.

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By 2019, he'd set up the space and found himself with more time and attacked painting with a vengeance. Those are the works featured on this site.

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Collections

Carlson's work is in private collections in Dallas; Orange County, Calif.; New Orleans; St. Louis; Miami; and various other places in the U.S.

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Exhibition History

G R O U P   S H O W S

2025-2026 "13th Biannual Exhibit," Angad Arts Hotel, St. Louis, MO

2025 "The Witching Hour"; Revolution Gallery, Buffalo NY

2025 "Portrait Show"; Modern Eden Gallery, San Francisco CA

2025 "Surreal Salon 17"; Baton Rouge Gallery, Baton Rouge, LA

2024-2025 "Stories"; The Gallery at the Library, Hermann, MO, 4 works

2024 "Portrait Show"; Modern Eden Gallery, San Francisco CA

2024 "Southwest Surrealism/Surreal Southwest"; YC Prescott Art Gallery, Prescott, AZ

2024 "Total Eclipse of the Art"; Revolution Gallery, Buffalo NY

1982 Juried Show; Main Street Gallery, St. Charles MO

1979 Three-Person Senior Show; SMSU Student Union Gallery, Springfield MO

1978 Faculty Curated Student Work; SMSU Library Gallery, Springfield MO

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NOTE: There are other Tom Carlsons who paint. This is the one in Arizona. Not the one in Utah nor the one in the New York metro area.