Janet
Olney

Absence/Presence

Absence/Presence is a new body of work that explores absence as a presence and a sensation connected to spatial memory. Through a series of drawings, paintings, and digitally fabricated objects, Janet Olney asks viewers to navigate the ambiguity of the seen and unseen while grappling with the fleeting nature of perception. Using a language of abstraction and gesture, Olney remixes the various components to reflect on existence and the passage of time.

Absence/Presence is the thirty-first exhibition by the ICA since 2011.

Janet Olney

Using a personal language of shape and color, Janet Olney reframes the familiar to reveal an alternate world populated with things that defy naming. Her paintings and installations investigate the realm of uncertainty that lies just outside our awareness: a peripheral world straddling analog and digital spaces. Originally from Boston, MA, Janet received her BFA in Painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art and her MFA from the Hoffberger School of Painting (MICA) in 2014. She is the recipient of the Henry Walters Traveling Fellowship, a Marcella Brenner Grant for Faculty Research, and a Lucas Grant for Faculty Teaching and Curriculum Development. She was a resident at the Vermont Studio Center and her recent projects include an installation for the Facebook AIR program in Washington D.C. and a solo exhibition, If x, Then y at VisArts in Rockville, MD. Janet has upcoming shows at the Lightwell Gallery, University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK. She currently teaches at the Maryland Institute College of Art.