Alex Olson: Diary

Altman Siegel is delighted to announce Diary, an exhibition of new works on paper by Alex Olson.

“These works on paper are part of a continuous body of work produced in conjunction with my paintings. They help to problem-solve the paintings by functioning not as studies but as test sites for ideas, marks, and gestures, as well as gathering asides and impromptu impulses just to see what might happen. While in process, they live on the studio floor without a specific orientation, free of preciousness and ready to be called upon. They often record the thinking behind several works simultaneously, cross-pollinating and building up multiple layers.

In the last few years, they’ve begun to stay past painting deadlines, lingering into the next deadline, and entering the world on their own timeline. They are finished when they’ve served their purpose and are either compelling enough in their own right to enter the world, or not, in which case they get stored in boxes in the studio but never discarded. I think of the collective body of works on paper as the diary of the paintings. These particular works act as documentation of 2020 - 2021.”

 

 

– Alex Olson