Alex Olson: A Platypus Glows Under Blacklight

Jan 21 - Feb 20, 2021
  • The title of this show paraphrases the headline of a recent New York Times article describing a new discovery about one of the more unlikely creatures on our planet, the platypus. An animal assemblage of sorts, it’s seemingly part duck, part beaver, and part reptile. It’s a mammal, but lays eggs. It has venom. And now it’s known to glow fluorescent, possibly, beautifully, for no reason at all.

     

    The possession of these seemingly contradictory traits along with this newfound surface attribute, which has yet to be codified into purpose, metaphorically describe much of what I’ve been thinking about in making this show. Before and now, the paintings revolve around surface: how surfaces are read perceptually but also socially, as a text. This show focuses specifically on the role of written text as external signage or as inscribed layers beneath veneers, obscured but still affecting. It considers our reliance on text to summarize and solidify at the risk of eliminating complexity and nuance. Embedded in this process is the question: what if these texts were taken apart and then rewritten in other visual forms, or with another choreography? Perhaps they could give way to a looser, more generative alphabet: a concrete script would become a calligraphic pattern, still telling but more open, expanding further into an array of potential logics without set conclusions.

     

    Alex Olson

  • Altman Siegel is pleased to announce A Platypus Glows Under Blacklight, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Los Angeles-based artist Alex Olson. The selection of new works, while consistent with Olson’s signature controlled materiality, mark-making, and collage-like approach, introduces a new element of script patterning and “text” components.  A Platypus Glows Under Blacklight marks the artist’s second solo exhibition with Altman Siegel.

  • Within Olson’s new painted works her mastery of surface is evident. Through the use of color, layering, and texture (both in terms of three-dimensional impasto and in terms of implied textures within visual patterning), she controls surface tensions in a manner simultaneously meticulous and playful. Layers appear to peel away to reveal peaks at other layers, suggesting several paintings imbedded in one, some of which remain forever concealed, at least in part, like a Russian doll.  Her mark-making pushes and pulls from both historical abstraction and contemporary design.

  • Another strategic yet playful recurring element in Olson’s practice is cross-referential nods between works. An example of this is the subtle dialogue between separate works, Page and Cover, both of which contain layers of painted effects that physically obscure a ground layer inscribed with carved marks, resembling notations and scribbles from Olson’s sketchbook. Text-based elements like jotted show notes, calligraphic scrawl and the Roman alphabet primer, seem to be attempting to reaffirm their own legitimacy or permanence by carving into the surface, only to be wryly obscured by the artist both materially and conceptually.

  • Whether partially revealed, hinted at, or otherwise resisting full literal consumption, the text components embedded in Olson’s new paintings dance just outside the grip of the legible, leaving us in a perpetually contemplative state, ever-hovering amongst the aesthetics of decipherability.

    • Alex Olson Point, 2020 Oil and modeling paste on canvas 75 x 53 in 190.5 x 134.6 cm
      Alex Olson
      Point, 2020
      Oil and modeling paste on canvas
      75 x 53 in
      190.5 x 134.6 cm
  • “Similar to past work, Point pairs a monochrome shape that is visible through its physicality with a rendered version of...

    “Similar to past work, Point pairs a monochrome shape that is visible through its physicality with a rendered version of itself. It’s ambiguous if the angle at the top reflects in the colorful, layered stripes below or if it runs behind them, as if passing through lenses that transform the read into other possibilities.”

     

    A.O.

    • Alex Olson Other Logics, 2020 Oil and modeling paste on canvas 71 x 50 in 180.3 x 127 cm
      Alex Olson
      Other Logics, 2020
      Oil and modeling paste on canvas
      71 x 50 in
      180.3 x 127 cm
  • “Other Logics contrasts inscribed marks that resemble a Roman-alphabet primer with a variety of loose brushwork. The patterned script peals...

    Other Logics contrasts inscribed marks that resemble a Roman-alphabet primer with a variety of loose brushwork. The patterned script peals away to reveal a multitude of suggested logics without cohering to a single one. Can brushstrokes take the place of letters from which to build texts?”

     

    A.O.

    • Alex Olson Zigzag, 2020 Oil and modeling paste on canvas 24 x 18 in 61 x 45.7 cm
      Alex Olson
      Zigzag, 2020
      Oil and modeling paste on canvas
      24 x 18 in
      61 x 45.7 cm
  • “Zigzag, like Egg, weaves two paintings together. One side has inscribed text set in a monochrome, textured ground and the... “Zigzag, like Egg, weaves two paintings together. One side has inscribed text set in a monochrome, textured ground and the...

    Zigzag, like Egg, weaves two paintings together. One side has inscribed text set in a monochrome, textured ground and the other has a proliferation of brushstrokes. Both coexist, though it suggests the text is an external surface revealing a more complex interior surface.”

     

    A.O.

    • Alex Olson Before, 2020 Oil and modeling paste on canvas 71 x 50 in 180.3 x 127 cm
      Alex Olson
      Before, 2020
      Oil and modeling paste on canvas
      71 x 50 in
      180.3 x 127 cm
  • 'Before splits the canvas into two sides for comparison, divided by a red glop that spills out from the painting... 'Before splits the canvas into two sides for comparison, divided by a red glop that spills out from the painting...

    "Before splits the canvas into two sides for comparison, divided by a red glop that spills out from the painting and suggests a moment of transition. The left-hand side is made up of monochrome, horizontal brushwork (or perhaps one large brushstroke) and reads as a singular text. The right-hand side offers an array of potential reads without conforming to a concrete conclusion."

     

    A.O.

    • Alex Olson Cover, 2020 Oil and modeling paste on canvas 71 x 50 in 180.3 x 127 cm
      Alex Olson
      Cover, 2020
      Oil and modeling paste on canvas
      71 x 50 in
      180.3 x 127 cm
  • “Cover is in dialogue with Page. An inscribed ground of scribbles, images, and notes become obscured under layers of covers... “Cover is in dialogue with Page. An inscribed ground of scribbles, images, and notes become obscured under layers of covers...

    Cover is in dialogue with Page. An inscribed ground of scribbles, images, and notes become obscured under layers of covers of pattern and paintings. Like flipping through clothes in a closet, these layers offer a variety of facades for presentation, but the text beneath affects and disrupts the attempts to cover, at times resurfacing and becoming visible.”

     

    A.O.

  • “Performers presents calligraphic ‘wallpaper’ with two paintings that appear to be revealed from within or are perhaps sitting on top.... “Performers presents calligraphic ‘wallpaper’ with two paintings that appear to be revealed from within or are perhaps sitting on top....

    Performers presents calligraphic ‘wallpaper’ with two paintings that appear to be revealed from within or are perhaps sitting on top. These interior paintings have the same palette but different forms, with brushwork playing at portraiture. This brushwork contrasts the more regulated marks of the wallpaper, and suggests alternative scripts for the brushwork to play.”

     

    A.O.

    • Alex Olson Page, 2020 Oil and modeling paste on canvas 71 x 50 in 180.3 x 127 cm
      Alex Olson
      Page, 2020
      Oil and modeling paste on canvas
      71 x 50 in
      180.3 x 127 cm
  • “The notations in Page relate to my sketchbook drawings for the paintings in the show. Inscribed marks on the left-hand... “The notations in Page relate to my sketchbook drawings for the paintings in the show. Inscribed marks on the left-hand...

    “The notations in Page relate to my sketchbook drawings for the paintings in the show. Inscribed marks on the left-hand side, highlighted with a bright red/orange, seem to disappear behind layers of textures. Looking closer, these physical notations remain visible beneath the textured surfaces despite being obscured.”

     

    A.O.

    • Alex Olson Sea Script, 2020 Oil and modeling paste on canvas 71 x 50 in 180.3 x 127 cm
      Alex Olson
      Sea Script, 2020
      Oil and modeling paste on canvas
      71 x 50 in
      180.3 x 127 cm
  • “The idea behind Sea Script was to have two reads occur simultaneously and symbiotically. The ground is a calligraphic scribble... “The idea behind Sea Script was to have two reads occur simultaneously and symbiotically. The ground is a calligraphic scribble...

    “The idea behind Sea Script was to have two reads occur simultaneously and symbiotically. The ground is a calligraphic scribble that becomes visible through the brushwork on top. The scribbled marks sometimes come to the surface to suggest a letter or word, but mostly act as a buzz of noise beneath the surface.”

     

    A.O.

    • Alex Olson Nest, 2020 Oil and modeling paste on canvas 71 x 50 in 180.3 x 127 cm
      Alex Olson
      Nest, 2020
      Oil and modeling paste on canvas
      71 x 50 in
      180.3 x 127 cm
  • 'Similar to a Russian doll, Nest suggests paintings pealing away to reveal more paintings, but infinitely so. It’s meant to...

    "Similar to a Russian doll, Nest suggests paintings pealing away to reveal more paintings, but infinitely so. It’s meant to be an overload of options. I was thinking of a person being composed of all these surfaces simultaneously, as well as possessing a compounding of possible exteriors, starting with the seed at the center."

     

    A.O.

    • Alex Olson Egg, 2020 Oil and modeling paste on canvas 24 x 18 in 61 x 45.7 cm
      Alex Olson
      Egg, 2020
      Oil and modeling paste on canvas
      24 x 18 in
      61 x 45.7 cm
  • “This small painting shows a painting pealing away to reveal another painting. The checkerboard print, which demonstrates brushwork and mark-making...

    “This small painting shows a painting pealing away to reveal another painting. The checkerboard print, which demonstrates brushwork and mark-making as a system, gives way to more free-form brushwork that presents an alternative surface of looser logics.”

     

    A.O.

  • Alex Olson in conversation with art historian and critic Suzanne Hudson

    January 30, 2021
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    Alex Olson was born in 1978 in Boston, and she lives and works in Los Angeles. In 2008 she received her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts and in 2001 her BA from Harvard University. Olson has had solo and two-person exhibitions at 12.26, Dallas; Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago; Park View/Paul Soto, Los Angeles; Laura Bartlett Gallery, London; and Lisa Cooley, New York. She has shown in group exhibitions at Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; and Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and her works are included in their respective public collections. Other selected group exhibitions include University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor; Blue Projects, London; Mary Mary Gallery, Glasgow; Public Fiction, Los Angeles; Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Los Angeles; and Wallspace, New York.

  • The gallery is currently open by appointment. Follow this link to schedule your visit. For more information please contact Altman Siegel at info@altmansiegel.com.