Olga Seem: With Care In Such A World (Art Opening)
Thursday, March 21, 2024
Los Angeles City College’s VAMA Gallery is very pleased to announce “With Care in Such a World”, an exhibition of paintings and drawings by the late artist Olga Seem. An opening reception will be held March 21st from 5-7pm.
“With Care in Such a World” features Seem’s mature works, many of which have not been previously shown. Olga Seems presents a vision of nature that is singular in its exquisite beauty and sparseness. A finely rendered detail of the inside of a flower or an insect wing floats on a ground of moody color as if cut and pasted on. The subtleties of her minute details within sparse compositions create an almost surreal sense of space- and timelessness. Seem presents a micro-macro perception of nature as she depicts her details while allowing us to sense a spatial sublime beyond: Her images are grounded in a physical and kinesthetic experience of being alive and transitory at once. Olga Seem's work is highly relevant to this moment: formally innovative and singular, it reminds us of nature’s fragile beauty. This show is sure to cement her place in history as a groundbreaking female artist, who has been underrecognized for too long.
Olga Seem worked throughout the United States and Japan. She studied at UCLA where she received her BA in Education in 1949 and her Masters in 1963. She taught painting at LACC for many decades until her retirement, after which she created the Olga Seems Koyman scholarship. She continued making art into her nineties, even after her eyesight started failing her.
Her art has won many awards, including the Distinguished Woman Artist for 2004 from the Fresno Art Museum, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation award in 2002 and the E.D. Foundation Artist Grant in 1989 and in 1992. Her work is also in the collection of the San Francisco Fine Art Museum as well as a number of corporate and private collections.
The show is organized and curated by Art Co-op 931. For any questions please contact Alexandra Wiesenfeld at @email
Vama Gallery is open to the public Monday through Friday 11am-3pm and by appointment. The show will run through April 18th.
Poster credit Mae Bradley
