Karyn Olivier lives and works in Philadelphia and New York City. 

 

Olivier investigates our social interactions with familiar objects, spaces, and each other, through the use of sculpture, installation, public works, photography, and video. She often manipulates the familiar — creating redundancy with replicated objects or exaggerating what is already there. Her work often explores the changing countenance of intimacy as it fluctuates between a private (individual) experience and a social (collective) one. This exploration converges with her observation of nostalgia, which functions in her work through cultural and historical references. She conflates these, using the simplicity of a minimalist aesthetic to induce a perceptual shift in our reading of these once familiar objects.

 

Olivier has exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, USA; MOMA P.S. 1, New York City, USA; Museum of Contemporary Art in Houston, USA; among other institutions and biennials in North America, Europe and Asia. Olivier has also received various awards and international residencies, such as the Salomon Guggenheim award.