Award-winning painter, sculptor and muralist who draws upon his tribal heritage to create art around the world

Painter, sculptor, muralist and illustrator Addison Karl is an internationally commissioned and self-taught contemporary visual artist. Born in 1982 in Denver but raised in Phoenix, Karl's art is heavily inspired by his Chickasaw and Choctaw heritage, incorporating Southeastern tribal themes with a focus on his unique artistic style.

After attending the Art Institute, Karl set out on a self-determined path to further his education by creating beautiful and thought-provoking artwork throughout North America and around the world, including Germany, Russia, Mexico, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Pakistan and Japan. His work includes pen and ink, paintings, sculptures, installations and public art, including large-scale murals, and is intended to expand the viewer's understanding of the context, structures and surfaces it inhabits.

In addition to contemporary painting and sculpting techniques, Karl is a dedicated student of traditional Chickasaw and Choctaw methods of creating. His artistic foundation builds from an early background in printmaking in a private studio for more than 15 years. The execution of his visual library is deeply rooted in the methods of creation, weaving through multidisciplinary materials and mediums to create a visual narrative and pulling references from personal interactions, nature, culture, history of humanity, altruism, color perception and emotional states.

His work has been commissioned and exhibited across the globe and he is the recipient of numerous awards at contests such as the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market and the Southeastern Art Show and Market. In 2019 Karl was awarded the Artists in Business Leadership Fellowship Grant from the First Peoples Fund and in 2020 he won the Society of Portrait Sculptors Tony Stones Award. In 2022 he began the Artist Residency Program at Amazon headquarters in Seattle.

Accomplishments

  • 2019, Second Place for Holisso Pisachi' at the 2019 Southeastern Art Show and Market in the Bronze Sculpture Division
  • 2019, Awarded the Artists in Business Leadership Fellowship Grant, First Peoples Fund of Rapid City, South Dakota
  • 2020, Tony Stones Award Commended from the Society of Portrait Sculptors
  • 2021, First Place for Okchamali at the 63rd Annual Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market in the Sculpture Division
  • 2021, Third Place, Sculpture, Southeastern Art Show and Market
  • 2021, Second Place for Ayukpa Pisa Chukma at the 63rd Annual Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market in the Sculpture Division
  • 2022 Artist Residency Program at Amazon Headquarters in Seattle