Olivia Guterson
Interdisciplinary Artist
Olivia Guterson is an interdisciplinary artist, born in Gallup, New Mexico and based in Detroit, Michigan. She is deeply influenced by the textures, landscapes, and patterns of her upbringing in the Southwest, as well as her Jewish and African heritage.She works predominantly in black and white for its stability, intensity, and honesty while incorporating ancestral patterns and narratives.Olivia studied at Evergreen State College, Washington State. In 2020, she curated her first exhibition,The Space Between at the Ann Arbor Art Center. She is currently a resident at Sibyls Shrine and AS220’s Practice//Practice. Private and public collections of her works can be found: Detroit Art Collection at the Library Street Collective; Shinola Hotel; ROI in Jerusalem, Israel. Her work has been shown at the Arab American National Museum, Art Week Miami, JADA Art Fair, Norwest Gallery, Detroit Artist Market, Ann Arbor Art Center, and more.
Articles
Blog
Listening As A Freedom Practice: Making Ritual On Juneteenth
Listening As A Freedom Practice: Making Ritual On Juneteenth
By Olivia Guterson
I know of Juneteenth as Freedom Day, but really it is a day nested in a season of remembering and communing with my Black ancestors, alive and transitioned. I feel overcome with gratitude for the ways they preserved the deep faith they kept and handed down. I feel immense sorrow for what they had to endure and the ways, as a country we’ve yet to fulfill our promises of freedom and reparations. I don’t pay attention to the performative ways companies, corporations, and social media “shows up” for Juneteenth. I do, however; have abundant energy to talk about the ways I recommit to myself and my community during this time through my practices of art, mothering, and seeking to be a good steward of the land I live on. Read more from Reboot Network member Olivia Guterson here.
Blog
We Are Earth Just as We are of the Earth
Detroit artist Olivia Guterson has created a series of gorgeous “earth portals” as an offering to Mother Earth as part of a Tu BiShvat exhibition, Environmentally Speaking, with the JCC of Metro Detroit, and has contributed to a live artistic celebration of the trees with Hazon.
Engaging in a critical conversation about our changing climate and the related perils we face, Environmentally Speaking is a multi-sensory and accessible exhibition examining our interspecies connectedness, offering viable ways we can positively impact our collective future now, Guterson said.
Read more about Guterson’s connection to Tu BiShvat in her blog.
Blog
Setting Our Table – Olivia Guterson
Art can inspire us, heal us, and alter how we move through and see the world. My hope for At Our Table is that it will spark a dialogue on the true cost of convenience; ignite commitments and action so that we can secure a future free of plastic waste and help us examine how we can learn from our ancestors in our pursuit for liberation against modern-day plagues.
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The Light Within
Guided by her practice of moving meditation to process lived experience and give shape to the intentions and hopes she has for the world, Olivia Guterson, along with fellow Jewish artist Laura Earle, designed and constructed solar-powered, recycled paper lanterns to shine light on the homeless situation in Detroit.Their interpretation of growth, resilience, and hope is embedded in the pattern of the lanterns. The lanterns served as beacons of light, beauty, hope and a reminder that there are no throw-away people or resources.