OLIVE AYHENS
Long Summer Nights, 2025.
Color lithograph on Arches Cover. 29.5 x 40.5 in. Edition of 25
Olive Ayhens continues her fascination with the urban landscape in her new print Long Summer Nights. Her work delves deeply into the tensions of the omnipresent aspects of the “confrontation of urban assault.” Growing up in the San Francisco Bay area, the artist is well acquainted with all aspects of urban/nature tensions.
After moving to New York for the Marie Walsh Sharpe residency, Ayhens began to focus on what she calls the “Aesthetics of Pollution”. Her imagery of sagging infrastructure, overcrowded roadways, the luminosity of night light, traffic moving on bridges, and complicated spooky, images under expressways all serve to develop her theme.
The aerial perspective of Long Summer Nights captures the bustling life of New York City. Barges and sailboats compete for space in the harbor. The headlights and tail lights of cars and trucks on the elevated roadways perpetuate a never-ending flow of people in motion. Yet there is a certain exuberance and joy to the chaos, a sense of dynamic energy, people moving, playing and working all together all over the city. In the foreground, the new playing fields and Brooklyn Bridge Park show figures running and playing ball. The overall scene is charged with life and color, inviting us to look deeper and enjoy the night.
— Andrew Mockler
B. 1943 Oakland, CA
Olive Ayhens received her BFA and MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Athens has had solo exhibitions at Bookstein Projects, NY; Roswell Museum Art Center, NM; Adam Baumgold Gallery, NY; Frederieke Taylor Gallery, NY; Lockhart Gallery Suny Geneseo, NY; Mid Manhattan Public Library, NY; Watkins Gallery, American University, DC. She has exhibited in numerous group exhibitions including Visual Arts Center, NJ; South Hampton Art Center, NY; Lesley Heller Gallery, NY; MTA Arts for Transit Museum, NY; Sue Scott Gallery, NY; and New York State Museum, Albany, NY.
In addition to her extensive exhibition history, Ayhens has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants including the Joan Mitchell Grant, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award and Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Individual Support Grant.
Artist residencies include Joan Mitchell Center, New Orleans; Schwandorf International, Germany; The Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Space Program, NY; Ucross Residency, WY; MacDowell Colony, NH; Fundacion Valparaiso, Spain; the Salzburg Kunsterhaus, Austria; Yaddo Artist Residency, NY; St. James Center, Valletta, Malta; Saltonstall, NY; Blue Mountain, NY; Djerassi Artist Residency, CA; the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, VA; the Roswell Artist Residency, NM; the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, NY; and the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program, NY.
The artist lives and works in New York City.