Frederieke Taylor Gallery presents new paintings and works on paper of vibrantly colored interiors by Olive Ayhens, in her first solo show with the gallery. Olive Ayhens is known for her cityscapes with off kilter perspectives, where she mixes the lyrical with the apocalyptic.

In this new body of work, Ayhens explores modern interiors that have the same vertiginous quality. In paintings such as “Computer Lab” and “Genome Lab”, we are confronted with the inner workings of technological environments as total living systems, showing the complexity of overlapping wires, cords, and equipment. Her altered perspectives and layering of imagery, create environments where the boundaries between inside and outside seem to become blurred. Architectural elements in Spanish interiors form visual labyrinths in Ayhens’ paintings and drawings for the viewer to wander through.

Olive Ayhens currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She was a 2006 recipient of the Guggenheim Award and has received additional awards including the Pollock-Krasner in 2001 and 1998, the Gottlieb Grant in 1996 and numerous residencies including the Marie Walsh Sharpe Space Program and LMCC World Views Residency.

Also presenting in the Viewing Room:

A Time to Build Up and a Time to Tear Down, curated by Michael Straus

This show – the second in the gallery’s flat files series – brings together the works of five artists whose drawings use forms of designed structures as a point of departure. Artists included are Cheryl Goldsleger, Ellen Harvey, Lucas Monaco, Ben Polsky, and Katrin Sigurdardottir. The artists variously build up imaginary elements in the structures, re-examine and conceptualize the buildings from multiple perspectives, or simply break them down into ruins. Their uses and abuses of architecture thus become multiple metaphors for the drawing process itself.