Olive Stefanski (they/she) is a queer Jewish artist and teacher, currently living on Potawatomi, Odawa, Ojibwe, Miami, Fox and Illinois land. Their first solo exhibition of weavings and sculptures titled And Before One, What Are You Counting? premiered at Roman Susan Art Foundation in August of 2021 and was chosen as a partner exhibition program by the Chicago Architecture Biennial. Their most recent solo exhibition of ten indigo dyed woven sculptures titled Becoming One Who Holds Many was curated by Zehra Khan through Tiger Strikes Asteroid Chicago in May 2023 and was awarded an Individual Artist Program grant by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.
In 2015, they earned an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, followed by an apprenticeship at the Chicago Weaving School from 2017-2020. Recently, their work was included in an essay written by Solomon Brager and published in ArtForum titled States of Mind: Towards an Alternative Future for Jewish Art which highlighted queer, leftist, and Anti-Zionist Jewish artists, cultural workers, exhibitions, and art movements.
They currently work as a Lead Artist for the Teen Creative Agency at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. They can be found online @floatyplace and can be contacted for studio-related inquiries at olive.stefanski@gmail.com.
Roman