Olive Ayhens’ paintings frequently evolves from a special sense of place and
transformation of environments in her own quirky ways. Sometimes there is a
political/ecological subtext but always the love of the paint itself. Color is her first
language, she has fun with personification and improbabilities of scale, thin and
thick paint etc. She is a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Fellowship, a Guggenheim
Fellowship, two Pollock/Krasner’s, and the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Individual
Support Grant. She’s been a resident at the Sharpe/Walentas Studio space, the
MacDowell Colony, Ucross, Yaddo, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Roswell
among other residencies. She received her M.F.A. from the San Francisco Art
Institute.