Casey Carsel is a New Zealand-born, Auckland-based, Jewish artist and writer drawn to the sharp beauty of the fragments of history that tumble down to the present moment. In their experimental and interdisciplinary practice, they seek to untangle the ways in which cultural narratives have been woven in the Jewish diaspora. What is cherished and how is it held? What is left behind? What is lost in translation?

Through socially inflected objects, histories, and materials of communication including garlic, the Holocaust, and jokes, Carsel works to unravel the intentions and implications of storytelling practices both overt and covert. Investigating how the stories conveyed by traditions, artefacts, and landscape shape identities and create communities, Carsel’s work opens a space where, as for the generations that came before and for those who will follow, stories become homes.

Most recently, Carsel has been investigating the images, objects, and words that Jewish communities have historically designated as protective and powerful, and the stories invoked therein. How do the symbols and the apotropaic objects that house such stories hold and move a people’s identity? What histories might they reveal here and now? How do they envelop a community’s fears, its material culture, its wider world?

You should know that the things that are funny and the things that are sad are usually the same things.


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EDUCATION

Master of Fine Arts in Writing (2017–2019)
School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), Chicago, IL., USA

Bachelor of Fine Arts with First Class Honours (2012–2016)
Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, New Zealand

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2023 
For the Healthy and For the Dead, Comfort Station, Chicago (solo)
The Eternal, Studio One Toi Tū, Auckland (solo) 

2022
you’d be home by now, Wormhole, Edgecumbe (solo)

2021
Terrain Biennial, Evanston
Present Tense, Auckland Art Fair

2020
Knobl Hearts, Co-Prosperity, Chicago (solo)

2019
Shum Klum, RM Gallery, Auckland (solo)
When a poor man eats a chicken, one of them is sick (but we sing, we still sing), Blue Oyster Gallery, Dunedin (solo)

2017
Rather owe you than not pay you
, MEANWHILE onsite, Wellington (solo)
He Had His Lunch and I Had Mine, MEANWHILE online, Wellington (solo)

2016
cry, without words, Window Online Gallery, Auckland (solo)
What do I want? Where do I stand?, Offsite, Auckland
HumanNature, George Fraser Gallery, Auckland
The Colour of Your Heart is What Matters, Studio One Toi Tū, Auckland

2014
CityUps, Festival of Transitional Architecture, Christchurch

SELECTED CREATIVE WRITING and ART WRITING

2024 
Elizabeth Newman,” The Chartwell Collection (co-published with Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki) (forthcoming)
I've been told,” “the stage (try asking again later),” Mayhem (forthcoming)
Unyimeabasi Udoh,” Efraín López, New York (forthcoming)
Dream Home,” takahē (forthcoming)

2022
Unbreaking a horizon,” The Documentarian 
Safran Foer’s Trachimbrod, Revisited,” Niv
To Build A Home,” West Space, Melbourne

2021
Haig Aivazian: All of the Lights at The Renaissance Society,” Ocula Magazine
At this point, everybody already knows utopia is no place, but it bears repeating,” Unyimeabasi Udoh: Title Case, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Chicago
What’s in a name?,” Lumpen 138

2020
To Me You’re Beautiful, Bus Projects, Melbourne
Anne Wilson: If We Asked about the Sky and All That Was Formed from Earth, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago
Cindy Ji Hye Kim: Drawing the Unseen,” Ocula Magazine
Gary Simmons: History as Residue,” Ocula Magazine

2019
A Translucent Approach,” F Newsmagazine
ee ghaoo maange acha ho jai [these wounds must heal], Clark House Initiative, Mumbai
A thousand kisses deep,” The Seen, Chicago
Water and Concrete Part II,” Hamster III, The Physics Room, Christchurch

2018
Lavender sweat,” “People-walking,” Tipton Poetry Journal, Tipton
Water and Concrete Part I, Hamster II, The Physics Room

2017
A Journey Begins, Temporary Vanua, Adam Art Gallery, Wellington
Ann Shelton In Conversation, Ocula Magazine

SELECTED HONOURS / AWARDS / RESIDENCIES

2024
RM Writer’s Residency, Auckland (forthcoming)
Auckland Studio Potters Residency
, Auckland (forthcoming)

2023
StudioWorks Artist-in-Residence Program, Tides Institute & Museum of Art, Maine
Ragdale Visual Artist Residency Award
, Lake Forest

2022
Urban Adamah Fellowship, Berkeley
New York Public Library Short-Term Research Fellowship in support of the artwork series “For the healthy and for the dead”
Barry Hannah Prize (finalist), Yalobusha Review, for the short story “Big Responsibilities”

2021
Fulbright U.S. Creative Writing Grant for nine-month residency in Ukraine
DCASE Individual Artists Program Grant towards the contributor fees and printing of Plates Issue 04: Craft

2020
Arts for Illinois Relief Fund for living expenses under COVID-19

2019
SAIC Writing Program Small Grant Award for research travel to New York in support of Blue Oyster Art Project Space solo exhibition

2018
College Media Association Pinnacle Award: Best Magazine Entertainment Page/Spread
SAIC Graduate Dean Professional Development Award for travel to Auckland in support of RM Gallery solo exhibition

2017
SAIC Writing Program Small Grant Award for travel to The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati
Albert Krehbiel Scholarship towards studies at SAIC
SAIC Enrichment Scholarship towards studies

2016
First Class Honours in Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, Elam School of Fine Arts

2015
Summer Research Scholarship, University of Auckland
The Social International Residency for Artists, Christchurch
New Zealand Painting and Printmaking Awards (finalist), Hamilton 

RELEVANT PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

2024
Peer Assessor, Folger Shakespeare Library Artist Fellowships

2023
Artistic workshop leader, Tides Institute & Museum of Art
Peer Assessor, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events Individual Artists Program Grants, Literature

2021 
Facilitator, America House Kyiv Creative Writing Workshop Series (–2023)
Guest Lecturer, Dnipro National University (as part of nine-month Fulbright grant) (–2022)

2019
Editor, Plates Journal (–2022)
Operations Director, 2dcloud (–2021)
Co-Founder, SAIC Graduate Writers’ Salon/Moonrise Club, Chicago (–2021)
Research Assistant, Anne Wilson, Chicago

2018
Managing Editor, F Newsmagazine, Chicago (–2019)

2017
Editorial Assistant, Ocula Ltd., Auckland/Remote (–2023)

2016
Ceramics Technician, University of Auckland (–2017)

SELECTED PRESS AND PROFILES

2023
Aimée Ralfini, “The Art of September/October,” Verve
Brian Hieggelke, “Art Top 5: December 2023,” Newcity
Joshua Katz, “‘We Will Outlive Them’: The Story of a Song, a Protest Slogan, and the Yiddish Revival,” Smithsonian Folklife Magazine

2022
Lyudmila Sholokhova, “NYPL Researcher Spotlight: Casey Carsel,” New York Public Library
Kathy Forsyth, “Stories retold in new exhibition,” The Beacon

2021
Philip Barcio, “Episode 29,” Apocalypse Mixtape
We think you’ll be into this interactive project with emerging artists,” Ensemble
Lori Waxman, “60wrd/min COVID Edition: Exo, Olivier, Casey Carsel,” Newcity
Becky Hemus, “Present Tense,” The Art Paper
Lorna Thornber, “Seven reasons to visit Auckland Art Fair in 2021,” Stuff 

2019
Quishile Charan, Garlic and a whole lotta lovin,’ RM Gallery, Auckland
Interview, DPAG Late Breakfast, 2 November
Interview, OAR FM Arts Hub, 10 October
Review, Otago Daily Times, 9 October, Dunedin

2017
Interview, Elamite

2016
Interview, Ready Steady Learn, 25 October, Auckland
Interview Artbank, 14 August, Auckland


2014
Chris Barton, “A smart way forward for ChCh,New Zealand Herald