Oliver Polzin
B. 1986
United States
Publications
2021 New American Paintings West #156
Exhibitions
2024 - upcoming July - Painting, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
2024 - upcoming - Painting, Evoke Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
2024 - upcoming May - Painting, Materiality, Santa Fe, NM
2024 Devotion, Painting, Omnihum Gallery, Taos, NM
2024 Spring Dream, Painting, Hecho a Mano Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2023 Solo Show, Painting, Four Seasons Rancho Encantado, Tesuque, NM
2023 500 Below Winter, Painting, Smoke the Moon, Santa Fe, NM
2023 Death of Clown School, Painting, Clown School Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2023 500 Below Summer, Painting, Smoke the Moon, Santa Fe, NM
2023 Divination, Painting, Clown School, Santa Fe, NM
2022 500 Below Winter, Painting, Smoke the Moon, Santa Fe, NM
2022 Prehistoric, Painting, Clown School, Santa Fe, NM
2021 Freewill in the Afterlife, Solo Room in Meow Wolf Inc's Omega Mart, Las Vegas, NV
2020 Anecdotal Scenarios, Painting, GVG Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
2017 Doom Room, Interactive Immersive Installation, Meow Wolf Inc, Art Motel at Life is Beautiful Festival, Las Vegas, NV
2016 Tea Leaf Reader, House of Halloween Immersive Performance, Meow Wolf Inc, Santa Fe, NM
2016 The House of Eternal Return, Massive Immersive Installation, Meow Wolf Inc, Santa Fe, NM
2014 Humans I Wouldn't Mind Being, Solo Show, Painting, GVG Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
2013 Omega Mart, Immersive Installation, Meow Wolf Collective, Santa Fe, NM
2013 Land Cakes, Sculpture and Performance, AHA Festival, Santa Fe, NM
2013 Southwest Abstraction, Sculpture, GVG Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
2012 Dimensionality, Painting, GVG Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
2012 International Symposium of Electronic Arts (ISEA), Sculpture, with Meow Wolf Collective at the Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM
2011 Due Return Addendum, Meow Wolf Collective, 516 Arts, Albuquerque, NM
2011 The Due Return, Immersive Installation and Performance, Meow Wolf Collective, Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, NM
2010 Habitats, Immersive Installation, Meow Wolf Collective, Santa Fe, NM
Education
2009 BFA in Painting, Herberger College of Fine Arts, Arizona State University, Tempe AZ
Employment
2015 to 2022 Creative Director at Meow Wolf, Santa Fe, NM
2011 to 2016 Radical Art Instructor with CHIMERA, Santa Fe, NM
2010 to 2015 Member of Meow Wolf Art Collective, Santa Fe, NM
Bio:
Oliver Polzin is a naturalist and artist from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Oliver’s work explores themes of the human relationship to the more-than-human world. His obsessive and devotional technique summons evocative atmospheric scenes through chaotic layering and searching brushstrokes. His mark making seeks novelty, persuading the viewer to linger in unexpected places. Oliver’s compositions seek to pull the viewer from across the room to one nose length away.
He received a BFA in painting from Arizona State University in 2009. Oliver was part of the early formation of the Meow Wolf art collective from 2010 through the groups incorporation in 2015 until he left in 2022 to focus on his solo path. In his time with the group he experimented with a wide range of media - from large enterable and traversable naturalistic installations, to interactive tech and immersive storytelling, as well as 2D animations.