September, 2012
Ceangal International Artist Residency
Gairloch, Scotland
Sarah Olson
I exaggerate and combine forms -- distended tree limbs, distorted insects and birds, intestines, breasts, bellies, feet, genitals-- in order to question the origin of every living thing and show the interconnected web and relationship between creatures we consider separate from ourselves. Exploring the fragile and intimate quality of line and the explosive quality of color, I examine how the natural world is constantly being damaged and consumed, as well as how it in turn, is consuming us. My latest work challenges the destructive nature of human assumptions of superiority. It combines features from different life forms, to show inevitable links within earthly existence.
In my last body of work (mostly from 1999 to 2005), I explore how religion, most specifically Christianity, has molded and classified our thoughts and perceptions. In the West, the body, sexuality, gender and God have been defined through this tradition. This dominant spiritual tradition has coated the minds of many, secular and observant alike, with a seemingly standardized set of values and assumptions. In my drawings and paintings I try to unravel visually what is considered sacred and impenetrable and unearth how we arrive at our personal and spiritual beliefs. For the last several years I have been working with Elaine Pagels and other scholars to investigate the diversity of Christian origins. I have used as a direct narrative, themes from the ancient Gnostic texts discovered in 1945, in Nag Hammadi, Egypt. I am interested in how these lost myths and images might have changed the Christian pictorial tradition had they not been suppressed by the early Church. Hidden in a cave in Upper Egypt, most likely for the incompliant scriptural booty that they contained, when they were discovered almost 2000 years later, these texts shocked everyone. Describing God as masculine, feminine, and non-gendered, showing souls arriving at God directly through their own intuition, describing creation as a sexual act between male and female Gods, these gospels have completely rearranged how many interpreted the earliest years of Christianity. I am compelled by the comparisons they force us to consider: the chasm between a seemingly unflappable tradition of Christian images and literature and what might have been had Christian depictions been derived from these suppressed sacred texts.
Using many of these questions as a backdrop, my recent work communicates less directly about the origins of Christianity, but rather the origins of life, human and otherwise and at times, how we categorize based on previous assumptions of superiority and self-importance. I am working with some of these ideas as I collaborate with the Wendy Osserman Dance Company, combining our work in some unusual ways with the live music of Czech Composer, Iva Bittová for an upcoming performance at the Joyce SoHo theatre in the spring of 2009.
WORLD WITHOUT A HEADA collaboration between Sarah Olson and members of the Wendy Osserman Dance Company Thursday, Oct 15th
7:30pm The Mazer Theater at The Education Alliance Utilizing a freestanding set as both scrim and canvas, Olson and dancers, Cori Kresge and Cara Heerdt create illusions of shadow, movement, sound and painted line. more...
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 Cori Kresge and Sarah Olson - Photos by Jeremy Tressler 2009. |
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more is more is more or less A collaborative performance of dance, visual art and music by Sarah Olson, May 21st - 24th 8pm General Admission seating for all performances: $20; $15 seniors/students. Iva Bittová has created songs using text by Gertrude Stein, which she will perform live while four dancers trade identities, avoid narrative and embody paintings by Stein’s friends, Picasso and Matisse. Almost a hundred years later, Stein’s writing continues to sound avant-garde; Osserman and the other performers explore how this can be. Visual artist Sarah Olson will draw in real time, accompanying and merging with the performers. This is the second collaboration between Osserman and Bittová. Osserman’s choreography for their 2008 production, Out of Place was described as “provocative precisely because it feels like a new amalgam of some indefinable kind.” (Roslyn Sulcas, NEW YORK TIMES, 3/29/08). <Continue Press Release> Sarah Olson and Iva Bittová performing "Crying" from "more is more is more or less" |
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Sarah Elizabeth Olson
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2012 |
Beyond Reason, Design Museum, London Beyond Reason, Oakley SoHo, New York, NY |
2011 |
Wrapt, (solo exhibition), Casita Maria Gallery, Bronx, NY Giggling and Bubbling, Da Gallery, New York, NY Private Eyes, I Made an Art Gallery, Brooklyn, NY |
2010 |
The Birds and the Trees: A Two Night Stand, in conjunction with “Galvanic Folklore from the Accelerating Universe” choreographed by Cori Kresge, Center for Performance Research, Brooklyn, NY The Birds and the Trees II, Littlefield Performance Space, Brooklyn, NY Painting with Pictures, Casita Maria Gallery, Bronx, NY The Veil of Forgetfulness, Littlefield Performance Space, Brooklyn, NY Beyond Mountains There are Mountains, Art For Change, New York, NY |
2009 |
Neerja Modi Residency Exhibition, Neerja Modi Gallery, Jaipur, India Ballast, (exhibition and performance) Leith Hall Performance Space, Bronxville, NY World Without a Head, (performance and collaboration with Wendy Osserman Dance Company (WODC)), Education Alliance, New York, NY Grandmother Waits For You, Embassy Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland Fresh Asphalt, curated by Eun Young Choi, Gallery SATORI, New York, NY Pool Art Fair, curated by David Gibson, Article Projects, New York, NY Locus, curated by Lauren Wolk, MCLA Gallery 51, North Adams, MA |
2008 |
MICRO-MACRO, Gallery Satori, NY, NY Free Fall, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, Brooklyn, NY Paper in the Wind, Realform Project Space, Brooklyn, NY Sandarbh U.S. International Artist Residency Exhibition,, Colquitt Art Center, Moultrie, GA Bulletin, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, NY Take Home a Nude, Phillips de Pury, New York, NY |
2007 |
The Veil of Forgetfulness,The Church of the Holy Trinity, New York, NY Summer Exhibition , curated by Eric Fischl and Jenny Saville, NYAA, New York, NY Anniversary Exhibition, Rivington Gallery, London Pitt House Artist Residency Exhibition, Cerne Abbas, Dorset, England |
2006 |
Take Home a Nude, Philips de Pury, New York, NY |
2005 |
The Divine Body,Columbia University, LeRoy Neiman Gallery, New York, NY; Union Theological Seminary, James Chapel Gallery, New York, NY; and Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York, NY |
2002 |
Alumni Exhibition, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY |
1999 |
MFA Thesis Exhibition, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY Academy Works, Dahesh Museum, New York, NY |
1998 |
Fall Exhibition, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY Spring Exhibition, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY |
1997 |
Drawing Exhibition, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY |
1996 |
Space, Edge Gallery, Denver, CO |
1995 |
Small Works, Edge Gallery, Denver, CO Spontaneous Combustion, Boulder Artist Gallery, Boulder, CO |
1994 |
In the Hall of Icons, solo exhibit, Boulder Artist Gallery, Boulder, CO Inside her Voice, Boulder Artist Gallery, Boulder, CO |
1992 |
A Castle of Crooked Walls, solo exhibition, Boulder Artist Gallery, Boulder, CO |
PERFORMANCES
2011 |
Impossible Landscapes, Invisible Cities, in conjunction with "Giggling & Bubbling" exhibition, Da Gallery, New York, NY Impossible Landscapes, Invisible Cities, in conjunction with "PrivateEyes" exhibition, I Made an Art Gallery, Brooklyn, NY |
2010 |
Free Range, with choreographer Cori Kresge, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, Brooklyn, NY The Veil of Forgetfulness, opera by Susan Stoderl presented by Brooklyn Repertory Opera, Littlefield Performance Space, Brooklyn, NY World Without a Head, Sandarbh International Artist Residency, Partapur, India |
2009 |
Ballast, Leith Hall Performance Space, Bronxville, NY more is more is more or less, with Wendy Osserman Dance Company, Old Theater, Oriental, NC World Without a Head, Educational Alliance, New York, NY World Without a Head, Hacia Afuera Public Art Festival, New York, NY more is more is more or less, with Wendy Osserman Dance Company and musician Iva Bittová, Joyce SoHo, New York, NY World Without a Head, in conjunction with “Locus” exhibition, curated by Lauren Wolk, MCLA (Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts) Gallery 51, North Adams, MA |
REVIEWS
2010 |
Hill, Sophie, "One hundred and sixty seven." postcardwall.wordpress.com, June 16. Núñez, Joann Kim, "Bushwick Open Studios" updownacross, June 8. Taylor, Leah, "Art for Change Presents Haiti: Beyond Mountain There are Mountains" Flavorpill, April 6. Ashok Swarnakar, Jan 08 issue, (Rajasthan Paper) India Mukesh Pomodya, Jan 10 issue, (Rajasthan Paper) India Television newscast, Bharat Mahesh Bhavsar, Jan 15 program, PB Cable Local, Partapur, India |
2009 |
Hill, Charlie., "Old Theatre welcomes Wendy Osserman Dance Company…", Sun Journal,, August 31 Penkava, Melinda, "Modern Dance at Old Theatre", TownDock.net St. Lascaux, David., "Gertrude Stein reads in SoHo: more is more is more or less.", Voice of Dance, June 18. Armory Arts Week, CreativeContact Blog March, 2009 Roiter, Andrew, "Locus intrigues gallery goers", MCLA Beacon March 4 Roiter, Andrew, "Gallery 51 to merge performances with art", MCLA News Feb 7 |
2008 |
“Moultrie hosts international artists,” interview by Wainwright Jeffers, WALB News 10. Albany, GA: WALB, April 2. “New way of looking at things.” Moultrie Observer, April 1. |
2007 |
Revenson, Jody, "The Veil of Forgetfulness" susanstoderl.net, October 22 |
2005 |
Melnick, Lauren, "Divine Body on Display", Columbia Spectator October 12 |
GRANTS, FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS
2012 |
Ceangal International Artist Residency, Gairloch, Scotland |
2010 |
Sandarbh International Artist Residency, Partapur, Rajasthan, India |
2009 |
Neerja Modi International Art Residency, Jaipur, India Denver Children's Hospital Print Commission Denver, CO |
2008 |
Marquis Studio Teaching Residency Brooklyn, NY |
Sandarbh U.S. International Artist Residency, Colquitt Art Center, Moultrie, GA |
2007 |
Pitt House Artist Residency, Cerne Abbas, Dorset, England |
2004/2005 |
Columbia University, Union Theological Seminary, The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Fellowships for "The Divine Body" project, New York, NY |
1997/98 |
Faculty Merit Scholarship, New York Academy of Art |
1996 |
Morrison Family Foundation Tuition Scholarship, Boulder Academy of Art, Boulder, CO |
1995 |
Visual and Performing Arts Grant, the Boulder Arts Commission |
1989 |
Cleveland Institute of Art Scholarship, Lacoste, France |
LECTURES AND PANELS
2007 |
Meet the Artists, Lecture in conjunction with "The Veil of Forgetfulness," exhibition, Church of the Holy Trinity, New York, NY |
2005 |
The Divine Body: Religion and Art, Panel Chair, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York, NY, October 2 The Divine Body: Artful Resistance, Lost Christian Texts and Popular Imagination, Public Symposium, Union Theological Seminary, New York, NY, October 6. Loosening Canon, Lecture, Professor Hal Taussig, Union Theological Seminary, New York, NY God In Art, Panel, Ethan Cohen Fine Art, Scope Art Fair, New York, NY Images of the Divine Feminine, Lecture, Professor Donna Seamone, Department of Religious Studies, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario |
EDUCATION
1999 |
Master of Fine Arts, Painting, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY |
1990 |
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Painting, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO |
COLLECTIONS
Bruce W. Ferguson, New York, NY Eric Fischl, New York, NY Eileen Guggenheim, New York, NY Pierogi Gallery, flat file archives, New York, NY |
