Biography 

Patti Oleon works from digital photos she takes in public interior spaces, contrived to look habitable in some way, but void of human presence.  Oleon digitally manipulates the images, layering, inverting, mirroring, changing density and color, etc.  She creates a composite image like a blueprint that she then makes the painting from. The completed painting is a faithful rendition of that final worked image, painted in a traditional manner in oil, but clearly derived from a camera.  This new body of work is from apartment lobbies in a section of Los Angeles (an area Oleon grew up in). These buildings were mainly constructed in the 1970s and have benign, odd, mundane, or kitschy, and sometimes quite elaborate lobbies.  Oleon shot from the outside, up against the glass of the lobby doors, and utilized reflections of things out on the street to superimpose over the interiors, so that one can't place where one is located and one can't tell what is real and what is not.  The images are an amalgam of things, a real place dislocated in time and space, very realistically rendered but on the verge of abstraction.  They are elegant and finely detailed and are pervaded with an eerie sense of light. There is a disquiet, a sort of menace that is unidentifiable in the midst of mundaneness. The idea of lobby is important, as it offers ultimate possibilities for interpretation.

CV

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
 

2020 New Work, Modernism, Inc., San Francisco, CA (upcoming)
2018 Sideways, Edward Cella Art & Architecture, Los Angeles, CA
2018 Somewhere Else, Modernism, Inc. Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2017 Neither Here Nor There, Cris Worley Fine Arts, Dallas, TX
2015 Another Way Around, Modernism, Inc. Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2014 Parallel Spaces, Cris Worley Fine Arts, Dallas, TX 
2014 Texas Contemporary, Cris Worley Fine Arts, Houston, TX
2013 Elsewhere, Mark Moore Gallery, Culver City, CA 
2012 Selected Paintings, George Lawson Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 
2012 Transfigured Spaces, Modernism, Inc. San Francisco, CA 
2010 Other Spaces, Pulliam Gallery, Portland, OR 
2010 Transference, Modernism, Inc., San Francisco, CA (catalog)
2009 Phantom Spaces, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA (catalog)
2007 On Locations, Kidder Smith Gallery, BoCaston, MA 
2006 Other Places, Modernism, Inc., San Francisco, CA 
2006 On Location, Carl Berg Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 
2004 Light Fiction, Hunsaker/Schlesinger Fine Art, Santa Monica, CA 
2003 Other Light, Modernism, Inc., San Francisco, CA 
2001 Patti Oleon, New Work, Modernism, Inc., San Francisco, CA
1999 Patti Oleon, Angles Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 
1988 Patti Oleon, Roy Boyd Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
 
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2020 Created in Place, Modernism, Inc., San Francisco, CA

          Between Worlds, Edward Cella at PDC, Los Angeles, CA 

          Estate and Gallery Artists, R.B. Stevenson GAllery, La Jolla, CA

          As Inside, So Outside, Yngspc online exhibition, co-curator David B. Smith Gallery
2019 Multiverse, George Lawson Gallery, Mill Valley, CA
2017 Fog Design + Art Fair, Edward Cella Art & Architecture, Los Angeles, CA
2017 Annual 2017 Auction, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art , San Jose, CA 
2016 Dallas Art Fair, Cris Worley fine Arts, Dallas, TX
2015 Selected Paintings by Gallery Artists, Modernism, Inc. Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2014 6018 Wilshire Boulevard, Edward Cella Art + Architecture, Los Angeles, CA 
2014 Dallas Art Fair, Cris Worley Fine Arts, Dallas, TX
2014 Incognito 2014, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA
2013 Three Person Show, Cris Worley Fine Arts, Dallas, TX
2012 Illumination, Carl Berg Projects, Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles, CA 
2012 The $99 Show, Irvine Fine Arts Center, curated by Carl Berg, Irvine, CA
2012 Incognito 2012, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA                  
2011 Scalding Hot, Sears-Peyton Gallery, New York, NY
2011 TIMEless, Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles, CA
2011 Incognito 2011, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA
2011 Works:248-269, Marine Contemporary Art Salon, Santa Monica, CA
2010 Stormy Weather, George Lawson Gallery, San Francisco, CA 
2010 Small Works, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2010 Perspectives 2010, Stremmel Gallery, Reno, NV
2010 Group Show, Carl Berg Projects, Los Angeles, CA
2009 Manifestations, Carl Berg Projects, Los Angeles, CA 
2009 Summer Group Show, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2009 Three person exhibition, Carl Berg Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2007 LA in NY Art Fair, Carl Berg Gallery, New York, NY
2007 Bridge Art Fair, Chicago, Kidder Smith Gallery, Boston, MA
2007 Bridge Art Fair, Miami, Kidder Smith Gallery, Boston, MA
2006 Los Angeles Art Now, Galleri S.E. Bergen, Norway
2004 Singing My Song, Acme Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 
2004 25th Anniversary Show, Modernism Inc., San Francisco, CA
2004 Show and Tel, Zimmer Children’s Museum/Jewish Federation of Los Angeles 
2003 Anne Reed Gallery, Ketchum, Idaho
2003 Attack:Attraction, Marcel Sitcoske Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2002 The New Romantics, Greenwood Chebithes Gallery, La Jolla, CA
2002 Selected Works, Modernism Inc., San Francisco, CA
2002 Debra Owen Gallery, San Diego, CA 
2001 Bay Area Artists, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA
2000 Living Is Easy, Richard Anderson Fine Arts, New York, NY
1995 Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
1995 Second Nature, Director’s Guild, Los Angeles, CA
1994 Serious Beauty, Temporary Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA
1994 Serious Beauty II, Stuart Katz Gallery, La Jolla, CA
1991 Bardamu Gallery, New York, NY
1987 White Columns Gallery, New York, NY
1986 New Work, Studio Two, New York, NY
1982 Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
1978 Introductions, Tortue Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
1978 Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA
1978 Frederick W. Wright Gallery, UCLA, CA
1978 College Art Gallery, New Paltz, NY
 
SELECTED AWARDS AND HONORS
 
2013 Guggenheim Foundation Grant, John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, NY
2013 Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant, New York, NY
2009 Visiting Artist Lecturer, Cal State Long Beach, Long Beach, CA 
2006 New American Paintings #67, Open Studios Press, Boston, MA
2004 The Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Grant, New York, NY
2004 Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant, New York, NY
1987 – 1988 Ingram Merrill Foundation Grant, New York, NY
1979 – 1980 Fulbright Fellowship, Munich, Germany
1978 Ford Foundation Travel Grant
1977, 1978 UCLA Teaching Assistantship Grant
1977, 1978 Mabel Wilson Richards Scholarship
1977 Anna Bing Arnold Scholarship
1975 Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude
 
EDUCATION
 
University of California, Los Angeles, MFA (Painting)
University of California, Los Angeles, BA (Fine Arts)
 
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAHY
Ribbon of Darkness: Inferencing from the Shadowy Arts and Sciences, by Barbara Maria Stafford, University of Chicago Press, 2019
Interview With Patti Oleon; Voyage Houston Magazine, August 1, 2018
Patti Oleon at Edward Cella Art + Architecture, Wall Street International, January 30, 2018
Artscene Preview: Patti Oleon, January 12, 2018, by Michael Shaw, Edward Cella Art + Architecture, Culver City, CA
Edward Cella Art + Architecture presents new paintings by Patti Oleon, USA Art News.com, January, 2018
Visual Art Source: Editorial Features: Patti Oleon, "Recommended Exhibitions Week of January 19, 2018, Edward Cella Art + Architecture, Culver City, CA
Patti Oleon at Cris Worley Fine Arts, Dallas, Visual Art Source, Weekly Recommendations by John Zotos, March 10, 2017
Patti Oleon, Neither Here Nor There, Dallas Key Magazine, KeyDallas: Art Scene, March 17, 2017, Vol 73
The Top Picks At Dallas Art Fair, ArtNet News, by Eileen Kinsella, April 15, 2016
Patti Oleon at Cris Worley Fine Arts, Dallas, Visual Art Source, Weekly Recommendations by John Zotos, March 10, 2017
Patti Oleon, Neither Here Nor There, Dallas Key Magazine, KeyDallas: Art Scene, March 17, 2017, Vol 73
Patti Oleon at Cris Worley Fine Arts, ModernDallas.net, December 2014
Patti Oleon - Parallel Spaces, Arts + Culture, Texas, November 2014, by John Zotos
Patti Oleon - Parallel Spaces, Dallas Observer, by Lauren Smart, November 2014
Best Winter 2014-2015 Art Events in DFW, CBS Local, Best of Home, November 2014
An L.A. Gallery Has One Last Hurrah, Artsy, October 2014, by Karen Kedmey
Painting and Money at Texas Contemporary Art Fair,  New American Paintings editorial by Schwaiger, Seth Orion, October 2014
Art As you See It: This Art Week, Huffington Post, by Bill Bush, April 23, 2012
Patti Oleon, Artist Profile, Art LTD. Magazine, by Molly Enholm, May-June Issue, 2012
Patti Oleon:Transference, exhibition catalog with essay by Jonathan Keats, Modernism, Inc. Gallery, 
May 2010
Preview “Perspectives 2010” at Stremmel Gallery, Reno News & Review, May 2010
Patti Oleon at Pulliam Gallery, Willamette Weekly, Portland, OR, by Richard Speer, May 12, 2010
Patti Oleon at Modernism, by Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle, March 27, 2010
Transference, Patti Oleon at Modernsim, Art Slant, by Anna Hygelund, San Francisco, April 2010
Patti Oleon at Lora Schlesinger, Coagula Magazine.com, January 2010
Phantom Spaces, exhibition catalog, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, October 2009
Deftly Utilizing Forms of Light, by Leah Ollman, Los Angeles Times, June 2004
Patti Oleon: On Locations, by Cate McQuaid, The Boston Globe, October 18, 2007
Pollock Krasner Foundation, 20th Anniversary Catalog, 2004
New American Paintings, No.67, curated by Tumelo Mosaka, The Open Studios Press, Boston, MA, 2004
Modernism:Twenty-Five Years 1979-2004, essay by Jonathan Keats, 2004
Light Fiction, Patti Oleon At Hunsacher/Schlesinger Fine Art, Art Scene, 2004
New Romantics, OC Weekly, by Rebecca Schoenkopf, 2003
Oleon Takes The Object Out Of Context, by Collin Gardner, Los Angeles Herald Examiner, 1988
Art “Pick of the Week”, LA Weekly, by Jan Breslaver, November 1988
Patti Oleon at Roy Boyd, Galleries Around Town, Los Angeles Times, by Marlena Donohue, November 18, 1988