Megan Olson
American painter (born 1971)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Megan Olson is an American painter born in 1971.[1] She was raised in rural Connecticut, and has lived in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, New York, and Berlin.[2] She currently works out of her studio on the Lower East Side of New York City.[2] Olson received her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2002,[3] and was discovered by Maxwell Davidson Gallery while attending the AICAD New York Studio Residency Program.[2] Olson is a member of American Abstract Artists.[4]
Megan Olson | |
|---|---|
 Olson in 2008 | |
| Born | 1971 (age 54–55) New Milford, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Education | San Francisco Art Institute |
| Occupation | Artist |
| Website | Megan Olson |
Work
Olson creates abstract works in gouache, watercolor, graphite, spray paint and oil paint, on paper and canvas.[2] The artist describes her work as drawing on influences from the canon of art history ranging from Japanese scroll paintings to graffiti.[5]
American art critic and essayist Hilton Kramer described Olson's work as depicting "the dynamic processes of nature with a precision, stability and concreteness that are traditionally reserved for the painting of inert, three-dimensional objects."[1] Kramer says "the result of this concentrated attention to the nuances of nature is a pictorial style that’s at once highly abstract and persuasively realist in its fidelity to observed detail."[1]
Critical reception
Hilton Kramer noted the artist's use of color to "generate a sense of energy and movement," as in the work Fiery Ocean of which he wrote, "swirling traces of light disport themselves in a ruby-red sea," calling the result "unfailingly original and compelling."[1]
Solo exhibitions
- 2014 Beyond the Chains of Illusion, Berlin Art Projects, Istanbul, Turkey
- 2012 Legible Fiction, Davidson Contemporary, New York, NY[6][7]
- 2010 Beyond the Chains of Illusion, Berlin Art Projects, Berlin, Germany
- 2009 Spray Paintings [dead link], Davidson Contemporary, New York, NY
- 2007 Urban Nature [dead link], Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York, NY
- 2005 Still Movement [dead link], Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York, NY
- 2003 Synapsis, Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York, NY
- 2001 Organic Abstractions, Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York, NY