B. Ingrid Olson (b. 1987 in Denver, USA) implements elements of photography, sculpture, and performance in an ongoing exploration of the boundaries between body and space. Within the confines of her studio, she records her body as it moves — shifting in relationship to its surroundings. The results of this process are multidimensional objects and images that re-imagine the capacities of the body and the structuring of space.
In her photographic works, fragmented views of Olson’s body oscillate between a pictured subject and a subjective perspective, creating tensions between interior, direct experience and exterior, mirrored existence, and giving the artist full control over what the viewer is allowed to see — or not. Olson draws the viewer in, but only to a point. Images of splayed legs, torsos, bent knees, partial postures, and gestures are cropped by point of view, camera, and the physical framing of the printed photographs. The images are further complicated by flash, shadows, blurring, mirror reflections, and disjointed borders. The layered visual interruptions and camouflaged elements thwart attempts to find coherence in a single visual plane or continuous meaning, disorienting the viewer’s perception of both.
Fracture and camouflage are also at play in Olson’s relief sculptures. Rigid, rectilinear edges give way to soft, curved concavities at the center. Each segment suggests a specific somatic referent, but the machine-carved forms refuse to accommodate an organic reality. The minimal, sexless forms — evoking face, midriff, small of the back, thighs, shins, or toes — are hung at specific heights along the wall, matching to corresponding parts of a standing, erect body. At the same time, the combination of curvatures and protrusions over each sculpture's surface reacts to situational light and shadow, creating a shifting image of an absent body. The reliefs’structure and relationship to the surrounding architecture, in effect, heightens and questions the viewer’s sense of their own anatomy and physical presence in the world.
B. Ingrid Olson (b. 1987) lives and works in Chicago. Solo museum exhibitions of her work have been held at the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts at Harvard University; Vienna Secession; and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. Her work was also featured in a two-person exhibition at The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago. Olson has participated in group exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Jeu de Paume, Paris; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Aspen Art Museum; and The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
![B. INGRID OLSON, I, I, I, [open], n.d.](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_2400,h_2400,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto/artlogicstorage/i8/images/view/5191f4033f1c6dcd80100e58b7161599j.jpg)
![B. INGRID OLSON, [M]others, 2018-2021](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_2400,h_2400,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto/artlogicstorage/i8/images/view/98e9fdd42ce1abd456fe1c2a60e72838j.jpg)
-
B. Ingrid Olson
Cast of Mind 20 Jan - 20 Dec 2023 i8 Grandii8 Grandi is pleased to announce Cast of Mind, a year-long exhibition by B. Ingrid Olson. The artist ’ s show opens 20 January, 2023 and will be on view...Read more -
No.9 Cork Street
BIRGIR ANDRÉSSON, B. INGRID OLSON, RAGNA RÓBERTSDÓTTIR 4 - 20 Nov 2021 OtherAt Frieze No. 9 Cork Street, i8 Gallery will present an exhibition of work by three gallery artists: Birgir Andrésson, B. Ingrid Olson, and Ragna Róbertsdóttir. The exhibition opens on...Read more -
Elisions
N. DASH, K.R.M. MOONEY, B. INGRID OLSON, CARRIE YAMAOKA 9 Sep - 20 Nov 2021 i8 Galleryi8 Gallery is pleased to announce Elisions, a group show featuring the work of N. Dash, K.R.M. Mooney, B. Ingrid Olson, and Carrie Yamaoka. The exhibition will open with a...Read more -
B. INGRID OLSON
Fingered Eyed 6 Jun - 10 Aug 2019 i8 GalleryWhat happens at the intersections of mise-en-scène, l’esprit de l’escalier, and mise en abyme? Or better yet: what happens when an art-making practice extends beyond those tools of which we’ve...Read more -
Seeing Believing Having Holding
Kelly Akashi, Kahlil Robert Irving, Michelle Lopez, B. Ingrid Olson and Daniel Rios Rodriguez 18 Aug - 27 Oct 2018 i8 GalleryKelly Akashi Kahlil Robert Irving Michelle Lopez B. Ingrid Olson Daniel Rios Rodriguez Organised by Dan Byers Seeing Believing Having Holding brings together five American artists living across the United...Read more
-
B. Ingrid Olson
Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing 20 Mar - 11 Aug 2024The eighty-first edition of the Whitney Biennial—the longest-running survey of contemporary art in the United States—features seventy-one artists and collectives grappling with many of today’s...Read more -
New Monograph Release B. Ingrid Olson: History Mother, Little Sister
i8 Grandi, Marshallhouse, Reykjavik 27 Apr 2023B. Ingrid Olson book History mother, little sisterRead more -
B. Ingrid Olson: History Mother
The Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 21 Jul - 23 Dec 2022i8 Gallery is pleased to announce two simultaneous solo exhibitions by artist B. Ingrid Olson: History Mother and Little Sister, each on a separate floor...Read more -
B. Ingrid Olson: Little Sister
The Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 21 Jul - 23 Dec 2022i8 Gallery is pleased to announce two simultaneous solo exhibitions by artist B. Ingrid Olson: History Mother and Little Sister, each on a separate floor...Read more
-
B. INGRID OLSON: Elastic X
Secession, Vienna, Austria 29 Jun - 4 Sep 2022In her exhibition Elastic X, B. Ingrid Olson presents a series of new works: a sculptural installation that both responds to and inverts the gallery’s...Read more -
B. Ingrid Olson: Fata Morgana
Jeu De Paume, Paris, France 22 Mar - 22 May 2022The first edition of the Jeu de Paume Festival offers the public the opportunity to discover the multiple dimensions of the image in the diversity...Read more -
B. Ingrid Olson: The Inconstant World
Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, USA 6 Mar - 30 May 2021The Inconstant World features nine international artists whose work examines the relationship between perception and abstraction, focusing on visibility and illegibility as artistic strategies. With...Read more -
B. Ingrid Olson: Just Connect
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA 17 Jul - 8 Nov 2020The global pandemic has forced us to put intense scrutiny on the things we touch, the spaces we inhabit, and the people we come into...Read more
-
B. Ingrid Olson: New Visions
Henie-Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, Norway 21 Feb - 16 May 2020It is the first major international presentation of its kind in Norway and fills all three gallery spaces of the ground floor at the museum....Read more -
B. Ingrid Olson: Lost without your Rhythm
Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO, USA 18 Nov 2018 - 24 Feb 2019Taking its departure from New York’s Judson Dance Theater program and its founding members, Lost Without Your Rhythm examines diverse types of bodily movement—graceful as...Read more -
B. Ingrid Olson: Picture Fiction. Kenneth Josephson and Contemporary Photography
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL, USA 28 Apr - 30 Dec 2018Images surround us daily—from art to advertising and social media. But how do these images relate to reality? Chicago-based photographer Kenneth Josephson (American, b. 1932)...Read more -
B. Ingrid Olson: Being: New Photography
MoMA, New York, NY, USA 18 Mar - 19 Aug 2018Every two years, MoMA’s celebrated New Photography exhibition series presents urgent and compelling ideas in recent photography and photo-based art. This year’s edition, Being ,...Read more
-
B. INGRID OLSON: FOREHEAD AND BRAIN
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, USA 10 Mar - 17 Jun 2018Within the confines of her studio, B. Ingrid Olson (American, born 1987) records her body as it shifts and relates to the surroundings and the...Read more -
B. Ingrid Olson: KLEIN/OLSON
The Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA 22 Apr - 18 Jun 2017For the final exhibition this season, the Renaissance Society presents the work of two artists, Astrid Klein and B. Ingrid Olson. Side by side, works...Read more
b. 1987 in Denver, USA
Lives and works in Chicago
EDUCATION
2010
B.F.A., The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024
Hys, XYZcollective, Tokyo
Keijiban, Ishikawa
2023
Pleasure Traffic, fluent, Santander
Cast of Mind, i8 Grandi, Reykjavik
2022
History Mother, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Little Sister, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Elastic X, Secession, Vienna, Austria
2019
Fingered Eyed, i8 Gallery, Reykjavík
2018
Forehead and Brain, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, USA
Kiss the architect on the mouth, Simone Subal Gallery, New York, USA
2015
double-ended arrow, Simone Subal Gallery, New York, USA
2014
The vases my monitors their frames, cura.basement, Rome, Italy
2013
From her come a gang and a run, Document, Chicago
TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2023
I wish I was alone right now, with John Henderson, Soccer Club Club, Chicago
Parallel Manipulation, with clémence de la tour du pin, Wschód, Warsaw
2018
B. Ingrid Olson and Robert Overby, Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco
2017
KLEIN/OLSON, with Astrid Klein, The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, Chicago
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024
Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Frankenstein, Fraenkel Gallery, San Fransisco
Five Easy Peaces, Croy Nielsen, Vienna, Austira
2023
Descending the Staircase, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
The Rose, lumber room, Portland, Origon
2022
Fata Morgana, Jeu de Paume, Paris, France
BLACK PAGES 1-100, Franz Josefs Kai 3, Vienna, Austria
2021
Birgir Andrésson, B. Ingrid Olson, Ragna Róbertsdóttir, i8 Gallery at No.9 Cork Street, London, UK
Elisions. N. Dash, K.R.M. Mooney, B. Ingrid Olson, Carrie Yamaoka, i8 Gallery, Reykjavík
This Is My Bodys, Bodega, New York, USA
re: collections, The Rose Art Museum, Massachusetts, USA
Someone said that the world's a stage, Grimm Gallery, New York, USA
Dependent Objects, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA
The Inconstant World, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, USA
Rabbit Hole, F, Houston, Texas, USA
2020
Just Connect, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA
Four Flags, Chicago Manual Style, Chicago, USA
Four Flags, Netwerk Aalst, Aalst, Belgium
Finding Our Way, Lumber Room, Portland, USA
Cabin [4.3.2020 - 4.4.2020], Sweetwater, Berlin, Germany
New Visions: The Henie Onstad Triennial for Photography and New Media, Henie-Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, Norway
2019
Personal Private Public, Hauser & Wirth 22nd Street, New York, USA
Emerge Selections 2019, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, USA
2018
Lost Without Your Rhythm, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, USA
Seeing Believing Having Holding, organized by Dan Byers, i8 Gallery, Reykjavík
Being: New Photography 2018, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
Picture Fiction: Kenneth Josephson and Contemporary Photography, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA
2017
Small Sculpture, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, USA
Fond Illusions, Galerie Perrotin, New York, USA
Women to the Front, Lumber Room, Portland, USA
The problem with having a body is that it always needs to be somewhere, The Approach, London, UK
2016
Scarlet Street, Lucien Terras, New York, USA
Natures Department, Kodomo, New York, USA
Chicago and Vicinity, Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago, USA
Terms of Use, Glass Curtain Gallery, Columbia College, Chicago, USA
Background/Foreground, Galerie Nordenhake, Stockholm, Sweden
2015
Civilization and Its Discontents, Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, USA
Synecdoche, Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco, USA
2014
Dreams That Money Can’t Buy, MAXXI Museo delle Arti del XXI secolo, Rome, Italy
Fragments of an unknowable whole, Ohio State University, Columbus, USA
2013
We seem to still be moving, Simone Subal Gallery, New York, USA
RESIDENCIES AND AWARDS
Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, 2023
The Shifting Foundation Grant, 2023
Surf Point Foundation Residency, York, Maine, 2021
Print Catalyst Program, Yale School of Art, 2019
Artist Residency, Latitude Chicago, 2017
Fall Artist Residency, Ox-Bow School of Art, 2016
Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs Grant, 2012
Illinois Arts Council Grant, 2011
Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs Grant, 2011
Summer Residency, Spudnik Press, 2011
Fred A. Hillbruner Artist Book Fellowship, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2010
Edward Ryerson Fellowship, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2010
Daniels Scholar, The Daniels Fund, 2006 - 2010
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, Chicago, Illinois
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angles, California
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
Rose Art Museum, Waltham, Massachusetts
Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton
Yale Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
Monographs, Publications and Exhibition Catalogs
2024
Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing. New York, New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 2024.
2023
Blackley, Andrew, Dan Byers, Renee Gladman, Gordon Hall, B. Ingrid Olson and Leah Pires. B. Ingrid Olson: History Mother Little Sister. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, 2022. Monograph.
2022
Olson, B. Ingrid and Rosmarie Waldrop. 323 / 2021. Vienna, Austria: Secession, 2022. Artist Book.
Bock, Katinka, Béatrice Gross and Clara Schulmann. Fata Morgana. Paris, France: Manuella Editions, 2022: 8; 35; 44-49; 252-54; 277; 281.
2020
Østby Sæther, Susanne, and Brian Sholis. Why Photography? (Bjarne Bare, Behzad Farazollahi, Susanne Østby Sæther and Christian Tunge, Eds.) Milan: Skira, 2020: 23; 66-73.
Olson, B. Ingrid. B. INGRID. (Christoph Meier, Ute Müller, Nick Oberthaler, Eds.) Vienna, Austria: Black Pages, 2020. Artist Book.
2019
Zambreno, Kate. 'Appendix C: Translations of the Uncanny', Appendix Project: Talks and Exhibits. South Pasadena, California: Semiotext(e), 2019: cover; 51-64.
Zambreno, Kate. 'Introductions to B. Ingrid Olson', Screen Tests. New York: Harper Perennial, 2019: 75-83.
2018
Hughes, Holly and Kate Zambreno. B. Ingrid Olson: Forehead and Brain. Buffalo, New York: Albright-Knox ArtGallery, 2018. Exhibition catalog.
2016
Latimer, Quinn, Like A Woman: Essays, Readings, Poems. Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2017: 59-61.
Carsten, Jesse, and B. Ingrid Olson. Salt. New York: Hassla, 2016. Artist Book.
Selected Reviews and Texts
2024
Goukassian, Elena and Benjamin Sutton. “The 2024 Whitney Biennial in five key themes.” theartnewspaper.com, March 21.
Vincler, John. “Was the Vision for the 2024 Whitney Biennial ‘Better Than the Real Thing’?” culturedmag.com, March 13.
2023
Barton, Brit. "B. Ingrid Olson: Don't Flinch." Mousse, Spring 2023: 206-211.
2022
Harris, Jenny. "Jenny Harris on B. Ingrid Olson." Artforum, December 2022.
Olson, B. Ingrid and Jared Quinton. "Any Room Can Be a Camera: B. Ingrid Olson Interviewed by Jared Quinton." Interview. BOMB-magazine.org, October 13.
Neuhold, Margit. "Meanings in Abeyance". Camera Austria International, no. 159: 79-80.
Brigitte Borchhardt-Birbaumer. "Spiele elastischer Raumkörper". WeinerZeitung.at, July 26. 2020
Strand, Nina. "Et ønske om materialitet". NyTid.no, February 15.
2019
Birgisdóttir, Ragnheiður. "Samspil sjónar og snertingar". Morgunblaðið, June 6: 65.
Bonilla-Edgington, Jennifer Rose. "Personal Private Public." The Brooklyn Rail, October.
2018
Fulton, Lauren and B. Ingrid Olson. "Flip the Medium: A conversation between artist B. Ingrid Olson and curator Lauren Fulton." Interview. Objektiv, no. 18 (November): 50-53.
Bell, Natalie. "First Look: B. Ingrid Olson." Art in America, (April): 25.
Kate Zambreno. "Introductions by Kate Zambreno" BOMB-magazine.org, April 26.
Spalding, Jill. "Being: New Photography 2018." Review. StudioInternational.com, April 7.
Greenberger, Alex. "The Browser: MoMA's Gripping 'New Photography' Goes Behind the Lens." ArtNews.com, March 22.
Indrisek, Scott. "At MoMA, Photography Doesn't Have to Reinvent Itself to Be Radical." Artsy.com, March 20.
2017
Cluggish, Sara. "Critic's Guide: Chicago." Review. Frieze.com, September 13.
Indrisek, Scott. "18 Artists Share the Books That Inspire Them." Artsy.net, June 23.
Cramerotti, Alfredo. "Astrid Klein & B. Ingrid Olson." Interview. The Seen, no. 4, (May): 36-43.
2016
McDonough, Tom. "B. Ingrid Olson." Osmos, Number 8 (Spring): 10-17.
2015
Blalock, Lucas. "Push-Back: A Conversation Between B. Ingrid Olson and Lucas Blalock." Interview. Objektiv, no. 12 (November): 8-26.
Aletti, Vince. "Goings on About Town: B. Ingrid Olson." Review. The New Yorker, February 16.
Blalock, Lucas. "Double-Ended Arrow- Review of B. Ingrid Olson." Review. Objektiv.no, March 3.
Gopnik, Blake. "B. Ingrid Olson: Bringing Cézanne up to Date." Review. Artnet.com, January 20.
Lee, Nathaniel. "B. Ingrid Olson." Review. Modern Painters (April).
2014
Foumberg, Jason. "B. Ingrid Olson at Document." Review. Modern Painters, April. 2013
Blackley, Andrew. "Lab: The Tenth Image." Cura. Magazine (Fall): 124-133.
Published Talks, Interviews and Panels
2023
"Ópera um ást og ofbeldi, Tól, Cast of mind” Víðsjá. Ríkisútvarpið. January 24.
2022
Reading: Renee Gladman and Rosmarie Waldrop, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University, Cambridge.
"Artists: B. Ingrid Olson in conversation with Annette Südbeck." Secession Podcast: Artists.
Artist Talk: B. Ingrid Olson in conversation with Leah Pires and Dan Byers, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University, Cambridge.
"No. 566: B. Ingrid Olson, Reinventing the Américas." Modern Art Notes Podcast.
2021
The Inconstant World: Liz Deschenes, David Horvitz and B. Ingrid Olson in conversation with Jamillah James, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
2018
Art Matters: Heidi Zuckerman in conversation with B. Ingrid Olson, Aspen Art Museum.
"No. 347: Thomas Scheibitz, B. Ingrid Olson." Modern Art Notes Podcast.
Outspoken: B. Ingrid Olson's Forehead and Brain, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo.
2017
Artists Talk: Astrid Klein and B. Ingrid Olson in conversation with Solveig Øvstebø, The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago.
![B. Ingrid Olson, 'Cast of Mind [part 09, October 31 - November 27, 2023]' at i8 Gallery, Reykjavík, 2023. 'Cast of Mind' installation view at i8 Grandi, Marshall House, Reykjavik, 2023. ©B. Ingrid Olson. Photo: Vigfus Birgisson](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_2400,h_2400,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto/ws-i8/usr/exhibitions/images/artists/119/ibio_2023_i8-grandi_castof-mind_07_09816_10-23-web.jpg)
![B. Ingrid Olson, 'Cast of Mind [part 01, January 20 - February 20, 2023]' at i8 Gallery, Reykjavík, 2023. 'Cast of Mind' installation view at i8 Grandi, Marshall House, Reykjavik, 2023. ©B. Ingrid Olson. Photo: Magnus](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_2400,h_2400,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto/ws-i8/usr/exhibitions/images/artists/119/ibio_2023_i8-grandi_castof-mind_10_0065_02-23-web-d.jpg)
B. Ingrid Olson, 'Fingered Eyed' at i8 Gallery, Reykjavík, 2019
-
Art Basel Miami Beach 2023
Miami Beach Convention Center 6 - 10 Dec 2023i8 Gallery's presentation for Art Basel Miami Beach 2023 features artists who are key figures within the gallery's history from past to present.Read more -
Frieze London 2023
The Regent's Park 11 - 15 Oct 2023i8 Gallery's presentation for Frieze London 2023 features artists who are key figures within the gallery's history. Two new works by Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967,...Read more -
Market 2022
Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden 29 Apr - 1 May 2022i8 Gallery returns to Stockholm for Market Art Fair 2022, presenting textile works, photography, prints, sculptures, and works on paper by four gallery artists: Birgir...Read more -
Frieze London 2020
8 - 11 Oct 2020Read more -
The Armory Show 2020
5 - 8 Mar 2020Read more