Lisa Olson

Statement

If asked to find a unifying theme among the disparate conceptual paths that I follow in my studio work, an idea of navigating danger would be one answer. We are tender and fragile and look for safe ways and armor.

What are the ways we negotiate the world? Memory and history, psychology, natural sciences and biology, mathematics, physical sciences and cultural mythologies all interest me as tools and systems.  

I sometimes work with ideas of childhood perceptions and fairy tale worlds because they are rich in imagery but also familiar and accessible.   They also allow intriguing and strange mixes of seemingly simplified conditions with a sense of fatalism or cause and effect tempered by unexplained possibility and potential.

Bio

Lisa Olson received an MFA in Mixed Media and a BS in Microbiology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her work is in public and private collections across the United States and in Europe, including the Universities of California Los Angeles and San Diego, Brown University, the Cleveland Institute of Art and the Boston Public Library.