The Central Libraries > Mid-Manhattan Library > Art > Artist Wall on Third

"Bristlecones on the Balcony," oil on canvas © 2003 Olive Ayhens

Olive Ayhens

03 May – 23 August 2007
The Art Collection, 3rd floor
Hours: Mon-Wed 9-9, Thu-Sat 10-6

The Art collection at Mid-Manhattan Library is pleased to present an exhibition of paintings by the well-known painter Olive Ayhens. An "Artist Dialogue" between Ayhens and the writer Mario Naves will take place on Monday May 21st at 6:30 p.m. on the 6th floor. “Art Wall on Third” exhibition series is curated by Arezoo Moseni.

Artist Statement
Color is my first language. My work is much involved with my love of the paint itself, with layering it, building textures, exploring color relationships, etc. My paintings incorporate metaphors on lust, love, fragility, journey’s end, birth, motherhood and death. These themes take on such forms as trashy architecture in juxtaposition to important monuments, endangered plants and animals. I am very concerned about the fragility of our planet and the possibility that humans have brought the sphere of life to the brink of disaster.

I work in connected series of paintings. Past series have reflected a year spent in Montana, as well as aspects of California urban/natural tensions. My move to New York City inspired “The Aesthetics Pollution” series dealing with the confrontation of nature versus the urban assault, depicting sinking cities, skyscrapers instead of cliffs on the sides, streams and creeks returning to displace streets, out-of-scale glacial ponds falling off the end of the earth, etc.

The paintings created during my World Views residency on the 91st floor of the World Trade Center, reflected the fabric patterns of urban architecture, skyscrapers and gridlock. The experience of observing NYC from a highly elevated viewpoint was similar to studying an organism under a microscope. The cityscape became a total “living being” weaving its intricacies for organic purposes of its own, and with details so dense leaving no room for breathing or walking.

My paintings after the residency were involved with superimposing volcanic activity in the NYC area as a result of being a native Californian and using volcanoes as a metaphor for the competitiveness encountered in Manhattan.

Since the tragedy of September 11th I have been working with night lights, movement of bridges, paint layers to establish the luminosity, complicated spooky images under the expressways and geysers on the roads. This has evolved to include interior spaces of computer labs, malls, rafters, a dream studio, crowd scenes, cars, soldiers, intense night scenes, changing reflections, etc.

All this is striving for a sensual visual beauty and having fun with personifications as well as improbabilities of scale. My work has always been influenced by my environment, both physical and spiritual.