M. (Margaret) Pettee Olsen (b. 1963, Rochester, New York) creates large-scale paintings that explore expansive, dislocated gestures within illusory space. Through subtle precision, she layers optically sophisticated paint and synthetic-bound pigments to illuminate the interplay between gesture and geometry, fine-sprayed graffiti and hard-edged marks. Her work produces imagery that flickers between surface and illusion, evoking transformation and movement. This irresolute quality is anchored by her deliberate and knowing artistic hand.
Originally trained in dance and invited as an understudy to join the American Ballet Theater, Pettee Olsen discovered her true concerns lay not in storytelling through the body but in the plastic philosophy of painting. This foundational understanding of movement and spatial relationships, including perceptual shifts through movement and time, continues to inform her visual practice.
Her career began in New York’s fine art printing world, where she worked on projects that included a variety of printmaking disciplines at a large scale. At age twenty-four, she became the founding curator of Oberon Press LTD, NYC, a renowned fine art limited edition lithography press in Tribeca. Following this foundational period, she devoted herself entirely to painting, developing what art historian Stephanie Grilli (Yale PhD) has termed “mutable perceptual events.”
With over three decades dedicated to painting, Pettee Olsen has established herself as a significant contemporary voice. Her career highlights have been featured in Artforum and Art News, with additional coverage in Westword (A Village Voice publication), The Denver Post, The Providence Journal, and Art New England.
Recent accomplishments include a residency with Michael David, M. David & Co., Brooklyn, NY (2020), and a fellowship from the Ucross Foundation (2019). She has received numerous awards, including an Artist Grant from the Rhode Island School of Design for an installation spanning the RISD campus and the Museum of the Rhode Island School of Design.
A graduate of Columbia University and the Rhode Island School of Design, M. Pettee Olsen remains actively engaged in the contemporary art scene with symposia, interviews, and podcasts on her work and aesthetic concerns. She lives and works in Upstate New York.
