Olive Ayhens
Born(1943-11-02)November 2, 1943
Oakland, California, US
Other namesOlive Madora Ayhens
EducationSan Francisco Art Institute
Known forPainting, drawing
StyleExpressionist, representational
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship, Joan Mitchell Foundation, Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation
WebsiteOfficial website
Olive Ayhens, Colosseum of Chaos, oil on canvas, 48" x 57", 2007.

Olive Madora Ayhens (born 1943),[1] is an American artist based in Brooklyn, New York.[2][3] She first gained recognition in California in the 1970s for stylized figurative work, but is most known for the fantastical, dizzying cityscapes, landscapes and interiors, often depicting New York City, that she has painted since the mid-1990s.[4][5][6] These works intermingle the urban and pastoral, and inside and outside, employing absurd juxtapositions, improbabilities of scale and vibrant colors, in pointed but playful explorations of the clash between civilization and nature.[7][8][9] New York Sun critic David Cohen has described her images as "poised between the lyrical and the apocalyptic. They capture both the poetry and the politics of the densely populated, literally and metaphorically stratified, used and abused city."[10]

Ayhens has been recognized with a Guggenheim Fellowship[11] and awards from the Joan Mitchell, Adolph & Esther Gottlieb and Pollock-Krasner foundations.[12][13][14] She has exhibited at institutions including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), American Academy of Arts & Letters,[15] Roswell Museum,[16] and New York State Museum.[17] Her work belongs to the public collections of MTA Arts & Design in New York,[18] the Oakland Museum of California[19] and the Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art,[20] among others.

Early life and career

Olive Madora Ayhens was born in 1943 and raised in Oakland, California.[4][19] She decided to become an artist at age 18 and enrolled at the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI), where she earned BFA and MFA degrees (1968, 1969), while producing figurative work influenced by Pre-Columbian art, early modernists and Abstract Expressionism.[7][3][21]

Ayhens was active among a group of female Bay Area artists in the early 1970s (among them, Judith Linhares and M. Louise Stanley), who became known for work that drew upon feminist ideas, outsider and ethnographic art, and the Funk movement to explore more direct, personal and social narratives.[1][22][23] Attracting the attention of California curators such as Philip Linhares and Whitney Chadwick, she appeared in group shows at SFMOMA, the Berkeley Art Center, Fresno Art Museum and Laguna Art Museum, and had solo exhibitions at the SFAI (1972), SFMOMA Artist Gallery (1989) and Michael Himovits Gallery (1991–94), among other venues.[24][19][22][25][26]

In 1996, a Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation studio grant prompted Ayhens's move to New York City.[9][7] The change directed her subject matter toward cityscapes, the collision of natural and urban, and ecological concerns.[7][9] A subsequent Lower Manhattan Cultural Council World Views residency providing 91st-floor studio space in the World Trade Center shifted her work further, towards bird's-eye-view panoramas that she likened to studying an organism under a microscope.[19][9][27] In her later career, Ayhens has had solo exhibitions at Gary Tatintsian Gallery (2002–03),[9][28] Mid-Manhattan Public Library (2007),[27] Frederieke Taylor Gallery (2007¬–09)[29] and Bookstein Projects (2012–19),[8][30] all in New York, and at the Roswell Museum (2015).[16] Her work has also been featured in Harper's Magazine since 2001.[31][32][33]

Work and reception

Ayhens's work is inspired by her physical environment—places lived in or traveled to—and in that way, has been described as almost biographical.[7] She works from on-site sketches, collected imagery, memory, and ultimately, imagination,[19][21] yet according to Hyperallergic's Stephen Maine, remains grounded in a "willingness to allow realism to dissolve into pure abstraction."[3] Her packed compositions fuse contradictory and imaginary realms into "jumbled panoramas"[3] that have been described as "urban visionary,"[10] expressionist,[28] folk-like,[34] raucous and "both apocalyptic and joyous."[35][15] Critics have compared her art to that of well-known cityscape artists Rackstraw Downes and Yvonne Jacquette, Hieronymus Bosch and expressionists Oskar Kokoschka and George Grosz.[27][10][6]

Olive Ayhens, Love in the Water, watercolor, 22" x 31", 1980.

Ayhens presents catastrophic environmental allegories that she offsets with a loose painting style employing saturated, hues, unexpected juxtapositions, and a warped sense of space.[8][19][7][3] The New Yorker's Andrea K. Scott suggested Ayhens's work was what might result "if modernist Florine Stettheimer had crossed paths with Greta Thunberg": colorful, kaleidoscopic composite paintings addressing climate change in which "whimsy tends to outstrip dread."[2] Stephen Maine suggests that a central, animating paradox of Ayhens's work is a contradiction between its profusion of eccentric pictorial detail and its ambiguous intent which encompasses "cultural symbol, narrative device, autobiographical marker, or just the fun of paint."[3][36]

Early work, 1970s and 1980s

Critics related Ayhens's early figurative watercolors and oils to the work of Kandinsky and Miró in its use of color and organic forms, respectively, to suggest emotional states, while distinguishing it from both in its more explicit forms grounded in reality.[37][38][23] Reviewers described these works as energetically expressive, lyrical "psychic explorations,"[38] whose personal narratives—often exploring female sexuality—also evoked the universal, ritualistic and archetypal.[37][39][23] In brightly painted, intricate compositions she played on variations of aboriginal human, natural and fantasy forms stylized into tapestry-like patterns (e.g., Goodbye, 1974) or surrounded by seas of organic and decorative elements that suggested instability and the power of greater forces (Love in the Water, 1980).[23][40][37][25] Critic Charles Shere termed them "landscapes of the interior teem[ing] with life, microscopic organisms and insect-organs that depict the feeling of … an ecstatically protracted moment."[41] In many works, a brighter sense of the ongoing-ness of life and its passages or a raucous sense of humor predominated, as in Love Among the Spiders (1983), which the Berkeley Express described as a "twitchy, tactile drawing … suggesting a view of intercourse from the inside out."[42][43]

In the 1980s, Ayhens's art became more influenced by her surroundings and environmental concerns, and moved closer to her mature style.[44][21] These watercolor and ink landscapes were characterized by a whimsical brightness that pushed them beyond the representational toward the imaginative, often conveyed through tongue-in-cheek, jumbled buildings and trees.[44] Artweek' called them "anxious amalgam(s) of ideal and concrete, nature and civilization" offering "a vision of manic inclusiveness [that] pushes just to the edge of holding together the contradictions of contemporary life."[26]

Olive Ayhens, Bristlecones on the Balcony, oil on linen, 75" x 59", 2003–04.

New York works (1996–2006)

Ayhens's expressionistic New York series The Esthetics of Pollution (1996) denoted both her cross-coastal transition (e.g., Montana Creeps Into NYC, 1996) and her response to that city's teeming urban environment.[21][7] Arts Magazine critic Robert Mahoney described the series' title work as "an energetic, Red Grooms-like panorama of a lower Manhattan surrounded by green slime" whose skyline that seemed "to be melting like a birthday cake in acid rain."[45] The New York Times's Roberta Smith characterized that work as a "wonderfully jaundiced … energetically perverted postcard image."[46]

In three solo exhibitions at Gary Tatintsian Gallery (2002–04), Ayhens presented paintings that interjected the natural into the urban and vice versa (Skyscrapers in Yellowstone, 1998) with fantastical, vertiginous scenes of cramped and crumpled, unstable metropolises and gridlocked highways overrun by herds of animals, primeval floods, canyons and forests.[47][34][9] Rapid Commute (1996–97) portrayed an alpine setting with a frothy, downstream river bearing cars, its banks populated with tilting skyscrapers and a city waterfront rather than cliffs.[9] The Streams Return (1997) depicted water flowing through Manhattan streets as it once did on the island—and possibly could in the future—suggesting the collapse of eons into a single moment.[9] The latter two shows took on a more dislocated, dizzying quality that Ken Johnson wrote demonstrated an "insouciant disregard for ordinary perspective" and David Cohen characterized as shimmering "with a kind of cubist-futurist faceting."[5][10][15] In one such work, Urban Strata (2004), Ayhens introduced interior space into the composition; it merged a bird's-eye-view cityscape with a funhouse-like depiction both inside and outside a large, glassed-in auto show packed with consumers, camouflaged soldiers, cars and escalators.[28]

Later work

Olive Ayhens, Camelid in the City, oil on linen, 51" x 39", 2019.

During the latter 2000s, Ayhens continued to explore interior-exterior ambiguities, incorporating new visual influences including opulent Moorish and Northern Renaissance architecture, the technology of modern labs and office spaces, and malls.[7][48][49] Her "Extreme Interiors" series arose out of a visit to a scientist friend’s lab, after which she made a connection between its maze of cords and gadgetry and her sense of the city as a kind of living organism.[49][21] David Cohen noted an intensification of line and color in the series' nervous, massed banks of wires, which added a "Pollock-like all-overness" to the skewed scenes, concluding, "The motif of a computer lab, where controlled mayhem, ad hoc efficiency and externalized mess support the creation of inner order, is the perfect metaphor for Ayhens’ mode of depiction: she is nothing if not wired."[48]

In solo exhibitions at Bookstein Projects, "Interior Wilderness" (2014), "Urbanities and Ur-Beasts" (2019) and "Transformation of Place" (2021–22), Ayhens presented surrealistic landscapes collapsing nature and the built environment.[8][3][49] These implausible works juxtaposed escalators and rivers, jungles and hotel lobbies, bestiaries and superhighways, and according to critic Jerry Saltz, "postapocalyptic narratives and prelapsarian bliss."[6][8] The first show's title work (2009–10), interwove a glitzy hotel, an encroaching pond edged with reeds, rocks, frogs and tile work, and a destabilizing background of converging planes and mismatched period décor.[3][8] Flecks in the Foam (2012) offered a panoramic cityscape of out-of-scale, swaying skyscrapers and tangled computer lab cables, a crashing monster wave and police cruisers, evoking a sense of rising ocean levels and overall calamity.[3][19] In the latter show, Ayhens depicted a contemporary world teeming with strange creatures, as in Camelid in the City (2019), in which a prehistoric mammal perches on the banks of an acid-green East River, its yellow-orange hide echoing the glinting lights of a distant Manhattan skyline.[2][30][36]

Awards and collections

Ayhens has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship (2006)[11] and grants from the Adolph & Esther Gottlieb Foundation (1996), Pollock-Krasner Foundation (1998, 2001) and Joan Mitchell Foundation Foundation (2013).[50][13][14] She has received artist residencies from the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans, Djerassi Artists Residency, Fundacion Valparaiso (Spain), Lower Manhattan Cultural Council,[27] MacDowell Colony,[51] Millay Arts, Roswell Artist-in-Residence (RAiR), Salzburg Kunsterhaus, Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program,[52] Ucross Foundation,[53] Virginia Center for the Creative Arts,[54] and Yaddo, among others.[55][14][7]

Her work belongs to the public museum collections of the Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art, Mills College Art Museum, MTA Arts & Design, Oakland Museum of California, Watkins Gallery at American University, the West Collection, and Whatcom Museum.[20][18][56][19]

References

  1. 1 2 Love, Barbara J. Feminists Who Changed America, 1963-1975, Urbana-Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2006, p. 24. ISBN 9780252097478.
  2. 1 2 3 Scott, Andrea K. "Olive Ayhens," The New Yorker, December 2, 2019, p. 5. Retrieved February 15, 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Maine, Stephen. "Painting the Wilderness of the Artistic Imagination," Hyperallergic, June 26, 2014. Retrieved February 15, 2023.
  4. 1 2 Albright, Thomas. Art in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945-1980: An Illustrated History, University of California Press, 1985, p. 259. ISBN 9780520051935.
  5. 1 2 Johnson, Ken. "Olive Ayhens," The New York Times, May 16, 2003. p. E35. Retrieved February 15, 2023.
  6. 1 2 3 Saltz, Jerry. "See Olive Ayhens: Interior Wilderness," New York Magazine, June 16–29, 2014, p. 102.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Gilltrap, Angela. "Urban Impact," The Artist's Magazine, October 2007, p. 48–51.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Pollack, Barbara. "Olive Ayhens," ARTnews, 2014, p. 98.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Lebowitz, Cathy. "Olive Ayhens at Gary Tatintsian," Art In America, May 2002.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Cohen, David. "Gallery Going: Olive Ayhens," The New York Sun, November 18, 2004.
  11. 1 2 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. "Olive Ayhens," Fellows. Retrieved February 15, 2023.
  12. ↑ Artforum. "Joan Mitchell Foundation Names 2020 Artists-in-Residence," News, January 29, 2020. Retrieved February 15, 2023.
  13. 1 2 Pollock-Krasner Foundation. Olive Ayhens, Artists. Retrieved February 16, 2023.
  14. 1 2 3 Roswell Artist-in-Residence Foundation. Olive Ayhens, RAiR 2014–5. Retrieved February 16, 2023.
  15. 1 2 3 Cohen, David. "Invitational Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture at American Academy of Arts and Letters," Artcritical, March 11, 2004. Retrieved February 15, 2023.
  16. 1 2 Berrones, Ray. "A Life Journey Told Through Art," Vision Magazine/Roswell Daily Record, Roswell Art Museum, January 15, 2015, p. 13-14.
  17. ↑ New York State Museum. "Reflecting on September 11, 2001," Exhibitions, 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2023.
  18. 1 2 MTA Arts & Design. Reflection, Olive Ayhens, Collection. Retrieved February 16, 2023.
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Lowry, Vicky. "Olive Ayhens," Elle Decor, June/July 2015, p. 60–64. Retrieved February 16, 2023.
  20. 1 2 Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art. Cinnamon Rose, Olive Ayhens, Collection. Retrieved February 16, 2023.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 Yaniv, Etty. "Olive Ayhens: Unique Improbabilities," Art Spiel, October 21, 2019. Retrieved February 15, 2023.
  22. 1 2 Chadwick, Whitney. Bay Area Narrative Painting, San Francisco: San Francisco State University, 1981.
  23. 1 2 3 4 Albright, Thomas. "The Vital Art of Four Feminists," San Francisco Chronicle, September 15, 1974, p. 12–13.
  24. ↑ Linhares, Philip. Four Women, San Francisco: San Francisco Art Institute, 1974.
  25. 1 2 McColm, Del. "From Anguish to Humor," Davis Enterprise, May 2, 1985, p. 4–5.
  26. 1 2 Webster, Mary Hull. "Perils of the Artist-Hero," Artweek, Vol. 22, 1991.
  27. 1 2 3 4 Morrone, Francis. "A New Yorker at Heart & in Paint," The New York Sun, August 16, 2007, p. 17. Retrieved February 15, 2023.
  28. 1 2 3 Nadelman, Cynthia. "Olive Ayhens," ARTnews, May 2005, p. 147.
  29. ↑ Naves, Mario. "Olive Ayhens: Nature/Architecture at Frederieke," City Arts, November 17, 2009, p. 11.
  30. 1 2 Saltz, Jerry. " See Olive Ayhens: Visionary drawings and paintings," New York Magazine, July 3, 2020, p. 78.
  31. ↑ Harpers. Olive Ayhens Archive. Retrieved February 15, 2023.
  32. ↑ Harpers. "Grand Central Inside/Outside," May 29, 2013. Retrieved February 15, 2023.
  33. ↑ Harpers. "War Endures, Olive Ayhens" January 2016. Retrieved February 15, 2023.
  34. 1 2 Naves, Mario. "Lovely Litter," New York Observer, May 19, 2003, p. 20.
  35. ↑ Naves, Mario. "The City as Artist' Muse: NYC Before and After 9/11," New York Observer, December 20, 2004.
  36. 1 2 Mount, Ferdinand. "Aprés Brexit," Lettre International, May/June 2020.
  37. 1 2 3 Platt, Susan. "Olive Ayhens," Images & Issues, March/April 1984, p. 37.
  38. 1 2 Dunham, Judith L. "Olive M. Ayhens," Artweek, August 4, 1973.
  39. ↑ McKenna, Kathryn. "Gallery keeps contemporary art afloat," Austin American-Statesman, November 8, 1981.
  40. ↑ McCann, Cecile N. "Four Women— And One," Artweek, October 3, 1974, p. 13.
  41. ↑ Shere, Charles. "Absorbing look at real life through 'funk art' at Mills College exhibit," The Oakland Tribune, February 15, 1984, p. C-6.
  42. ↑ Kossy, Barbara. "The Story of X, X-Rated: Erotic Art by Northern California," Berkeley Express, July 6, 1984.
  43. ↑ Weidman, Lisa. "A Manic-Depressive Show," Suttertown News, May 9, 1985, p. 6.
  44. 1 2 Bodo, Nancy. "Olive Ayhens/Lenore Gray Gallery," Art New England, July/August 1990.
  45. ↑ Mahoney, Robert. "Aerial Perspectives," Time Out New York, August 7–14, 1997, p.47.
  46. ↑ Smith, Roberta. "Aerial Perspectives," The New York Times, August 1, 1997, p. C25. Retrieved February 15, 2023.
  47. ↑ Levin, Kim. "Olive Ayhens," The Village Voice, February 12, 2002.
  48. 1 2 Cohen, David. "Artcritical Pick: Olive Ayhens at Lori Bookstein," Artcritical, February 27, 2012. Retrieved February 15, 2023.
  49. 1 2 3 Platt, Susan. Olive Ayhens, New York: Bookstein Projects, 2019.
  50. ↑ Joan Mitchell Foundation. Olive Ayhens, Supported Artists. Retrieved February 16, 2023.
  51. ↑ Macdowell. Olive Ayhens, Artists. Retrieved February 16, 2023.
  52. ↑ Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program. Olive Ayhens, 2016 Artists. Retrieved February 16, 2023.
  53. ↑ Ucross. Visual Arts Alumni. Retrieved February 16, 2023.
  54. ↑ Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Jane Geuting Camp Fellowship. Retrieved February 16, 2023.
  55. ↑ Yaddo. Visual Artists. Retrieved February 16, 2023.
  56. ↑ West Collection. Olive Ayhens, Collection. Retrieved February 16, 2023.
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