Megan Olson | |
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| Born | 1971 (age 52–53) New Milford, CT |
| Education | San Francisco Art Institute |
| Occupation | Artist |
| Website | www.meganolson.com |
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 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.[4]
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]
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]