Talk

MFA Fine Arts presents a talk by Jeanine Oleson.

Jeanine Oleson is a transdisciplinary artist working with images, materiality and language, which she forms into complex and sometimes humorous objects, images, videos, and performances. She attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1995), Rutgers University (2000), and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2000). Oleson has exhibited and performed at venues including: Cubitt Gallery, London (solo, 2018); Hammer Museum, LA (solo exhibition/performance, 2017); Coreana Museum, Seoul (2017); Commonwealth andCouncil, LA (solo, 2017/2012); Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta (2016); SculptureCenter, NY (exhibition/performance, 2016); Pierogi, NY (2015); New Museum, NY (solo exhibition/performances/residency, 2014); Exit Art, NY (solo exhibition/performance, 2012); Beta Local, San Juan, PR (performance/residency, 2011); X-Initiative, NY (exhibition/performance, 2009); Grand Arts, Kansas City, MO (residency/exhibition, 2009); Socrates Sculpture Park, NY (2009); Diverseworks, Houston, TX (2009); L.A.C.E., Los Angeles (2007); Monya Rowe Gallery, NY (solo, 2005); Samson Projects, Boston, MA (solo, 2005); Art in General, NY (2004); Participant, Inc., NY (2006); MoMA/PS1, NY (2002); Havana Biennale, (screening, 2000); and White Columns, NY (2000). Oleson has received a Rema Hort Mann Artist Community Engagement Grant (2016), Creative Capital Artist Grant (2015), Puffin Foundation and Foundation for Contemporary Art emergency grant (2014), Franklin Furnace Fellowship and a Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant (2009); a Brooklyn Arts Council Community Arts Regrant (2008 and 2009); and a Professional Development Fellowship, College Art Association (1999–2000). She was awarded a Rome Prize Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome (2024), and had residencies at BOFFO, Fire Island (2017); MacDowell Colony, NH (2016/2022); UrbanGlass, NY (2016); New Museum, NY (2014); Beta-Local, PR (2011); and Smack Mellon Studio Program, NY (2009-2010).

Oleson has also published two books about performance projects in 2012, What? and The Greater New York Smudge Cleanse and Conduct Matters, published by Dancing Foxes Press in Fall 2019. Oleson is currently an Associate Professor of Sculpture and the Graduate Director in the Department of Art & Design at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. She has also taught at Parsons School of Design, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Sarah Lawrence College, New York University, and Maryland Institute College of Art. She is also a lead collaborator since 2013 on a participatory project, “Photo Requests from Solitary” that provides requested images to people held in solitary confinement and supports advocacy efforts to end the practice in US prisons. This project has been shown numerous places including the Photoville Festival (2013), New York State Legislature (2017), the Brooklyn Public Library (2019), Eastern State Penitentiary (2018-present), and Princeton University (2022).

Talks is a series of lectures by artists, writers and scholars presented by MFA Fine Arts. Talks are held on Tuesdays at 3:00pm at 133 West 21st Street in Room 101C and on Zoom. Participation in the Q&A is limited to MFA Fine Arts students attending the lecture in person.

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