Completed Location #02
ARTIST STATEMENT
The image of “Evening Star” was born out of a “landscape/mountain” painting project, which is a series of ten “mountain” paintings that were to be installed at Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh to stimulate conversation between patients, families, and medical staff. The question, “Which mountain are you on today and where are you on that mountain?” could open the conversational door towards healing. “Evening Star” expresses the forces of nature and reveals movements in wind, rock, water, and light in conditions of both harmony and confrontation.
An image can have many lives and “Evening Star” is no exception. It is a painting. It is a lithograph. In Buckhannon, West Virginia, it has become a wall. Here, elements of the lithographic version have been reassembled and enlarged to provide a more “heroic” experience of the content. The scale of this installation stresses the emotional forces of nature, far larger than the observer on the street, and presents us with constantly evolving forms. It carries elements that one can easily find in the surrounding hills, rivers, and sky of this community. It also challenges us to recognize, perhaps, the forces of life inside and outside of each one of us.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Chuck Olson has built his painting career over the past 40 years while leading the Department of Fine Arts at Saint Francis University. Known to be one of the best abstract painters in the Pittsburgh Region, Olson has exhibited his paintings in dozens of American and international venues, and many are included in corporate, museum, and university fine art collections. Olson was awarded the status of Master Visual Artist for the City of Pittsburgh in 2013, which coincided with a solo exhibition of his paintings at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and an archive of his work established at the Heinz Regional History Museum.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
| 2015 | Gallerie Saint Gilles – Ambialet, France Zonone Contemporea Reggio – Emilia, Italy |
| 2014 | Loppis Galleria – Parma , Italy |
| 2012 | Artworks – Johnstown, Pennsylvania Asling Group – Washington, DC |
| 2011 | Christine Frechard Gallery – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| 2010-13 | La Galerie au Prieure – Ambialet, France |
| 2010 | Galleria dalla Rosa Pratti – Parma, Italy |
| 2009 | The Amarillo Museum of Art – Amarillo, Texas The Rosenfeld Gallery – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| 2007-08 | The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art “Chuck Olson: Visual Histories” Altoona, Pennsylvania |
| 2005-06 | Galleria Alphacentauri – Parma, Italy |
| 1996-13 | Denise Bibro Fine Art – New York City, New York |
| 1999 | Clarion University – Clarion, Pennsylvania Volksbank – Frankfurt, Germany |
| 1998 | Deutsch Amerikanische Zentrum/James Byrnes Institute – Stuttgart, Germany Galerie Lillebonne – Nancy, France Farleigh Dickinson University – Teaneck, New Jersey |
| 1998-13 | James Gallery – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| 1996-97 | Gallery in the Square – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| 1994, 01 | Kipp Gallery/University Museum – Indiana, Pennsylvania |
| 1993-94 | 808 Penn Modern – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| 1989-95 | The Rosenfeld Gallery – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| 1988 | Slippery Rock University – Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania |
| 1984, 88 | Gallery G – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| 1986 | Andre Zarre Gallery – New York City, New York Galerie Lillebonne – Nancy, France University Museum, Indiana University of Pennsylvania – Indiana, Pennsylvania |
| 1978-91 | Saint Francis College – Loretto, Pennsylvania |
| 1984-86 | Noel Butcher Gallery – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| 1985 | Galerie Voltaire – Sens, France |
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
| 2013 | Master Visual Artist: The Legacy Project. Pittsburgh Center for the Arts – Pittsburgh Pennsylvania |
| 2011 | Galerie de l’Echarpe – Toulouse, France |
| 2005 | Ragazzolla Estate 2005 – Parma, Italy |
| 2004 | Southern Vermont Arts Center Janet Fish – Manchester, Vermont |
| 1998 | New York, New York, New York: Beardmen, Matibe, and Olson; Frankfurt Airport Gallery – Frankfurt, Germany |
| 1995-04 | Denise Bibro Fine Art – New York City, New York |
| 1994-95 | Gelerie Sepia Pont – Aven, France |
| 1993 | National Works on Paper Fells Point Gallery – Baltimore, Maryland |
| 1990-94 | The Museum Gallery Philadelphia Museum of Art – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| 1990 | Osaka Triennial International Painting Exhibition – Osaka, Japan |
| 1989-91 | Mulhouse – Saint Die, Bar le Duc, and Pont a Mousson, France |
| 1988 | Inaugural ExhibitionThe Royce Gallery – Miami, Florida |
| 1987 | Galerie Lillebonne – Nancy, France |
| 1984-87 | The Andre Zarre Gallery – New York City, New York |