Katherina Olschbaur, born in 1983 in Bregenz, Lake Constance, Austria, lived in Vienna for 16 years before relocating to Los Angeles in 2017. The move to LA, coupled with residencies at Red Gate in Beijing, China and Kehinde Wiley’s Black Rock in Dakar, Senegal, profoundly transformed Olschbaur’s painting practice, emboldening her to push the boundaries in exploring the tenuous relationship between representation and abstraction, creating the distinct viewpoint in her work for which she is recognized.
Recent noteworthy exhibitions include her solo show Sirens at Dangxia Art Space (2023); the 14th Biennial of Contemporary African Art (Dak’Art) in Dakar, Senegal (2022); and her solo show Dirty Elements, curated by Allyson Unzicker, at Contemporary Arts Center Gallery, Claire Trevor School of the Arts, University of California, Irvine, USA (2020).
Olschbaur’s work is in the collections of public and private institutions including Belvedere 21 Museum of Contemporary Art in Vienna, Austria; the Institute of Contemporary, Miami, USA; Yageo Foundation in New Taipei City, Taiwan; and Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China.
