Jenny Olsen
MFA ’22 Fine Arts 2D
I am a painter. Oil is my chosen medium. I paint people I know including myself. The figures ground my work, and also act as a way of transferring my own physical and emotional presence onto the canvas. The painting, Last Samurais, featured in this show, showing a group of Japanese Samurais in their boater hats – a scene of transition in time. It is based on a photograph that portrays the gatherings of the last samurias in Japan. My great-grandfather, the father of my maternal grandmother, is in the second row, second from right. I have heard so many stories about him, and wish I had a chance to know him in person. Great-grandpa came to me in my painting, the only figure whose face is emerging in the work.
Jenny Olsen (MFA’22) is a visual artist who lives and works in Winchester, MA. She is a recipient of the Saint Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist award and grant in 2022, Mass MoCA Fellowship in 2022, and the “Best in Show” winner of CAA’s National Prize Show in 2015. Jenny has shown her work in many solo and group exhibitions: most recent shows are solos at Southern Vermont Arts Center, 2024, Saint Botolph Club, 2025 and group shows at LaiSun Keane Gallery, 2024 and 2025.
