By DOMINIC XAVIER
KEARNEY – When he is driving through the winding highways of central Nebraska, artist Chad M. Olsen is inspired by the rural scenery – whether it is the quiet blue skies over lush fields of wildflowers or the subtle grasslands of the prairie torn by recent storms.
With his newest exhibition at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, Olsen contemplates nature, impermanence and beauty.
“The idea of you” runs through Oct. 4 at the Walker Art Gallery in the Fine Arts Building on campus. It features Olsen’s newest works of art, some still damp to the touch. Olsen is known for his abstract minimalist paintings. His work always draws from nature and his own emotions, intertwined – he calls his paintings his “inner landscape.”
In the exhibition, Olsen speaks directly to nature. “The idea of you is more beautiful than the real you,” he says in his artist statement, then inverts it, “The real you is more beautiful than the idea of you.”
He encourages his viewers to consider both statements through his paintings – his meditative depictions of the earth and sky evoke real moments in nature. When his viewers walk through Olsen’s exhibition, the experience is almost nomadic. They wander through his inner landscapes, microcosms of moments and memories.
Olsen presents a haiku in his exhibition, capturing the essence of his relationship with the environment. “I chase fantasies / Nothing satisfies today / It’s all beautiful,” he writes. When Olsen was younger, he constantly imagined what it would be like to live somewhere else. As he has grown, as both a painter and a person, Olsen says he realizes there is beauty in every place, both in our imaginations and in reality.
“It’s all beautiful, because it’s always changing, every second. I can notice and appreciate every atmosphere,” he says.
The 41-year-old artist worked intensely over several weeks, his polychromatic atmospheres swirling around UNK’s painting studio. Usually, students attend painting courses in the studio – but for the summer, it was Olsen’s creative playground.
Compared to his previous shows, which have focused on complex emotions like longing or solitude, “The idea of you” emphasizes Olsen’s joy in the moment of painting. He explores new ways of approaching the techniques he has worked with for 15 years, like painting with his nondominant hand or playing with mineral spirits.
“I’m trying to focus more on just color and texture, and then listening and trying to have a continual conversation with the painting itself. I’m trying to not overthink and overanalyze when I paint, because I want it to come more automatically, through habit, experience and instinct,” he says.
A focal point of the exhibition is Olsen’s triptych, which shares a title with the show – “The idea of you.” The landscape spans three canvases, typically viewed as a single work of art, but each piece can be separated and presented individually. “Each panel has its own autonomous ethereal color with it, and I feel like I have other expressive moments that unify and tie the paintings together,” Olsen explains.
The triptych is an excellent example of Olsen’s work evolving through his process. He started with a tumultuous layer of deep Prussian blue and rich undertones, a sophisticated darkness that is characteristic of Olsen’s work. But after an unexpected evening of inspiration, he had a breakthrough painting session which shaped the artwork into a new direction. Sublime and atmospheric, Olsen captures the vivid luminosity of the midsummer Sandhills; hazy clouds of yellows, lilacs and blues blossoming over the canvas.
“I drove up to Bassett, Nebraska, for work and I was pleasantly surprised and excited about all the yellow wildflowers that I was seeing along the road, and I was still seeing shallow waters in the Sandhills that had a perfect reflection of the sky. I felt this kind of inspiration and urge, like I need to go paint,” Olsen says.
By representing his inner landscape, Olsen is permanently capturing the feelings and hues of a moment in a painting. Even then, his paintings are always changing and developing. “When I start with the painting, I have an idea of what I want to do. But it isn’t until I’m painting that I pivot and let it evolve naturally,” Olsen says.
Pinned alongside his work is a canvas drop cloth, speckled with gestural traces of all the colors he’s worked with since 2017, revealing how his painting style has developed over the years. It catches the spillover of his techniques – oil paint, mineral spirits, even dog fur from his late German shepherd, who passed away in 2020. Olsen says this exhibition is a culmination of his work so far, but also a breakthrough into a new chapter.
“I’m trying to be true to myself and kind of look back at the journey – from painting like I did when I was in college, to everything that’s transpired from when I was living in New York, to when I moved back to Nebraska, and I was in Omaha, to Lincoln, and now here. I’m thinking about the influences I’ve had, and acknowledging how those artists have an energy within their work that’s really wonderful that I hope to have in my paintings,” Olsen says.
Olsen considers his work with mineral spirits to be a signature technique in his style. Mineral spirits are a type of paint thinner, typically used to clean up oil paint. The mineral spirits diffuse the oil paints, softening the colors and creating depth as the layers melt together. In some of Olsen’s paintings, the mineral spirits are an element of nature itself – a fresh coating of mist over a green field, or a foggy sunrise in the early morning. Often, the effect is more ethereal, blurring the landscape into a distant memory or cloudy daydream.
The mineral spirits dissolve Olsen’s perfectionism, a practice of minimal control, allowing the painting to evolve through his process. Olsen experiences obsessive-compulsive disorder and sometimes struggles with self-criticism. He says, “When I do the mineral spirits, I do have some control, but I don’t have complete control. So how the paint mixes together and creates these ethereal atmospheres – I don’t know if I used enough paint, or too much paint, I have no idea what’s going to happen.
“So in some ways that’s really liberating and exciting but also at the same time, it’s very terrifying. It’s this underlying theme of letting go.”
His diptych titled “The real you” demonstrates Olsen’s work with mineral spirits. These twin paintings skillfully blend teal and blue, with buttery accents of yellow, peach and pink. The first painting of the set is more painterly and textural, emphasizing Olsen’s gestural brushwork and deft color palette. The second painting is identical, but delicately affected by mineral spirits, creating Olsen’s signature dreamlike atmosphere.
Painting is a spiritual experience for Olsen, similar to meditating in nature. In “The idea of you,” the theme of impermanence is tied closely to Buddhist philosophies and principles. Two other concepts are central to Olsen’s exhibition: the state of being unsatisfied and selflessness.
For Olsen, stepping away from pursuing satisfaction allows him to be more observant. He prevents himself from fixating on challenging experiences or holding onto brief happiness. He is sensitive to the idea that all moments, both positive and negative, are temporary. Instead of dwelling on the past, or looking forward to the future, he finds calmness in practicing mindfulness, embracing the present moment and his current surroundings.
“It’s just kind of finding blissfulness and happiness through the idea of impermanence – like I don’t need to hold on to one moment. It’s just a moment and then it’s gone and there’s something really freeing to that,” Olsen says.
“The idea of you” was conceived largely through conversations with his wife, Karissa Johnson, an art historian and curator at the Museum of Nebraska Art. Her historical perspective helps Olsen to contextualize his work as an abstract minimalist artist. She encourages him to experiment with his techniques and share his process.
Olsen says he hopes his solo exhibition will generate conversations with students and aspiring artists at UNK. In “The idea of you,” he wants to address the idea of the artist, breaking down preconceptions about pursuing art as a career. Often, Olsen feels like the process of painting is a solitary experience – so when he presents his work to the public, he enjoys connecting with creative-minded individuals in his community.
This summer, Olsen featured his work in a group show titled “A Legacy of Painting: Examining Four Perspectives” at Kiechel Fine Art, where he has been represented as a professional artist since 2017. His inner landscapes were exhibited next to paintings from Aaron Holz, Dan Howard and Keith Jacobshagen.
Olsen hopes to build upon the foundations he has established with his latest exhibition, continuing to experiment with his signature techniques.
The Walker Art Gallery is open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays. There is no cost for admission.
