Jeanine Oleson

American artist

Jeanine Oleson (born April 9, 1974) is an American interdisciplinary artist working with images, materials and language that she forms into complex and humorous objects, performance, film, video, sound, and installation. Oleson's work explores themes including audience, language, land/site, music, and late Capitalist alienation^[1]

Early life and education

Oleson attended Astoria High School, Clatsop Community College, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (BFA 1995), Rutgers University (MFA 2000), and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2000). Oleson has exhibited and performed at venues including: Hammer Museum, LA (2017); Commonwealth and Council, LA (2012/2017); Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta (2016); SculptureCenter, NY (2016); Pierogi, Brooklyn (2015), New Museum, NY (2014); Exit Art, NY (2012); Beta Local, San Juan, Puerto Rico (2012); X-Initiative, NY (2010); Grand Arts, Kansas City, MO (2009); Socrates Sculpture Park, NY (2009); Diverseworks, Houston, TX (2009); L.A.C.E., Los Angeles (2006), among others.^[2]

Career and work

The subject of Oleson's art is questioning and confronting big ideas.^[3] Her interdisciplinary work is marked by an interest in the conflict between contemporary life, the sensorial, and material concerns. Thinking through research and hands-on making/craft, she creates complicated, intertwined bodies of work. These large-scale projects involve performative, complex tableaux that result in responses anywhere from confusion to pleasure. Oleson's practice encompasses many different approaches to making her objects including performances, videos, installations, sound/music, art-based activism and her role as an educator.^[4] Oleson often works collaboratively.

In addition to her work as an artist, she is an Assistant Professor of Sculpture at Rutgers University. She has also taught at Parsons School of Design, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Sarah Lawrence College, NYU, MICA, and the University of Iowa. ^{[citation needed]}

Oleson is also a lead collaborator since 2013 on a participatory project, Photo Requests from Solitary that provides images to people held in solitary confinement and supports efforts to end the practice in US prisons and jails. Her collaborators are Jean Casella and Laurie Jo Reynolds.

Exhibitions

Selected exhibitions include the following.

• 2017 Can you feel it?, Commonwealth & Council, Los Angeles, CA^[5]
• 2017 Conduct Matters, Hammer Project, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA, May 6-August 6, curated by Connie Butler and Emily Gonzalez-Jarrett^[6]
• 2016 The Voice, Coreana Museum of Art, Seoul, S. Korea, curated by Jieun Seo 2016^[7]
• 2016 It Can Howl, Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, GA, curated by Daniel Fuller^[8]
• 2015 The Eccentrics, SculptureCenter, Queens, NY, curated by Ruba Katrib^[9]
• 2015 Destroy, she said, Pierogi, Brooklyn, curated by Saul Anton and Ethan Spigland^[10]
• 2014 A Sea Change Into Lands Rich and Strange, Abrons Art Center, curated by Amanda Parmer^[11]
• 2014 Hear, Here, residency/exhibition/public programs, New Museum, New York, NY, curated by Johanna Burton^[12]
• 2014 Still Acts, La Mama Galleria, NY, curated by Ian Daniels and Sara Reisman^[13]

Awards

Selected awards and grants include the following.

• 2017-2018 GIDEST Fellow, The New School^[14]
• 2016 Rema Hort Mann Artist Community Engagement Grant for Photo Requests from Solitary^[15]

• 2015 Creative Capital Artist Award^[16]
• 2014 Foundation for Contemporary Art Grant^[17]
• 2009 Franklin Furnace Fellowship^[18]

• 2008/2009 Brooklyn Arts Council Community Arts Regrant^[19]
• 2005 LEF Foundation Grant
• 2000 Ford Foundation Grant
• 1999-2000 Professional Development Fellowship, College Art Association

References

1. "Hammer Projects: Jeanine Oleson: Conduct Matters - Hammer Museum". The Hammer Museum. Retrieved 2019-06-24.
2. "Jeanine Oleson (MFA Photo Faculty) Named Rema Hort Mann Foundation, 2016 Artist Community Engagement Grantee". www.newschool.edu. Retrieved 2019-04-24.
3. "Hammer Projects: Jeanine Oleson: Conduct Matters - Hammer Museum". The Hammer Museum. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
4. "Jeanine Oleson on the Pleasure of Making Things". thecreativeindependent.com. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
5. "Commonwealth and Council / Can you feel it?". Commonwealth and Council. Retrieved 2019-04-24.
6. "Hammer Projects: Jeanine Oleson: Conduct Matters - Hammer Museum". The Hammer Museum. Retrieved 2019-06-24.
7. "The Voice (exhibition catalogue, Coreana Museum of Art, Seoul, 2017) | Mikhail Karikis". Retrieved 2019-04-24.
8. Studio, Familiar. "It Can Howl". Atlanta Contemporary. Retrieved 2019-04-24.
9. "The Eccentrics". www.sculpture-center.org. Retrieved 2019-06-24.
10. ""Destroy, she said" at The Boiler". Pierogi Gallery. 2015-02-01. Retrieved 2019-04-24.
11. "A Sea Change Into Lands Rich and Strange". Abrons Arts Center. Retrieved 2019-06-24.
12. "Jeanine Oleson: Hear, Here". www.newmuseum.org. Retrieved 2019-06-24.
13. "Still Acts". Ian Daniel. Retrieved 2019-06-24.
14. "Jeanine Oleson". GIDEST @ The New School. Retrieved 2019-06-24.
15. Mena, Jasmine; Vaccaro, Annemarie (2014), "Role Modeling Community Engagement for College Students: Narratives from Women Faculty and Staff of Color", Feminist Community Engagement, Palgrave Macmillan US, pp. 53–74, doi:10.1057/9781137441102_4, ISBN 9781349494729
16. "A.K. Burns and Jeanine Oleson Awarded Creative Capital Grants in the Visual Arts". Art, Media, & Technology. 2015-01-23. Retrieved 2019-06-24.
17. "2014 Emergency Grants: Performance Art/Theater :: Foundation for Contemporary Arts". www.foundationforcontemporaryarts.org. Retrieved 2019-06-24.
18. "Franklin Furnace Funded Projects". franklinfurnace.org. Retrieved 2019-06-24.
19. "2008 DCA Grant Recipients". Brooklyn Arts Council. Retrieved 2019-06-24.