Megan Olson
Artist Statement:
My painting style is an amalgamation of living in our current times, while also drawing from the canon of painting throughout history. I study previous movements of art and work to develop an aesthetic of new painting that builds upon that history. Drawing on the artists and techniques that inspire me, I incorporate elements ranging from the materials of scroll paintings to the glazing techniques of the Baroque, the hyper-realistic detail of Surrealism to the looseness of Abstract Expressionism, and the color and materials of Graffiti—which I see as a continuation of both the formal and social canon of art history.
Through this work, I aim to push the medium and myself, as an artist. I’ve developed a visual language to express an interconnectedness and universalism in the human experience that I believe can only be uniquely represented through the use of abstraction.
Artist Biography:
Megan Olson was born in Connecticut in 1971. She moved to Los Angeles in her teens and received her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2002. She was discovered by Maxwell Davidson Gallery in NYC, while still an undergrad student, attending the AICAD NY Studio Program in 2000. She moved to New York upon graduating in 2002, with a brief interlude of living in Berlin in 2009-2010. She has had several solo exhibitions in NYC, as well as solo shows in Berlin and Istanbul. Her show “Still Movement” was favorably reviewed by renowned art critic, Hilton Kramer, in the NY Observer. Her work has been featured in group exhibitions throughout the world, most notably in New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, and Seoul. She lives and works in New York.
AAA:
Member Since: 2023
Committees: Records & Archives (Chair)
