Mike Olin

Peninsula is pleased to present Mike Olin, Paintings, a solo exhibition showcasing the latest series of paintings by artist Mike Olin. Composed of a combination of found media and oil paint collaged onto linen, Olin’s work walks a thin, seemingly contradictory line between extreme blunt directness and subtlety.

Objects such as discarded thermometers, shards of plastic, unspooled bits of thread, postage stamps, and random animal stickers are strewn about the picture planes, often affixed in place with a thick coat of paint. This debris is eclectically applied to the surface, sprawled out and clumped together in free association. The painter’s maximalist sensibilities can also be seen in his use of prismatic rainbows within his works. Gradients of bright, vibrant paint are liberally intermingled. Colors splash, radiate, and fade into each other, turbulently melding through muddied broad brushstrokes and drips.

Yet, within this brash chaos, Olin achieves a type of equilibrium within each painting. Every work becomes its own pocket dimension; flat cosmic landscapes with their own unique internal logic. Despite the use of modern found materials, the paintings are at once primal and otherworldly. The tangibility and immediate recognizability of the found components of each painting allow them to be understood on an instinctual level, but the combined elements creates a sense of mysterious and awe-inspiring vastness.