The dreamlike reflections and splendid interiors brought to life by San Francisco-based artist Patti Oleon are consciously devoid of human presence. She meticulously renders her scenes in oil paint, working in layers to create imagery that is on the cusp of being hard-edged and tight but still feels soft and atmospheric. Without the inclusion of our silhouettes and organic geometry, Oleon’s worlds begin to refract, creating mirror images of themselves and spaces that infer a truly infinite existence and universe.

Oleon’s hallucinatory realms somehow feel instantly nostalgic. The works begin as photographs taken in rooms and public spaces with dramatic light that personally affected and moved her. Images are captured using a digital camera or old Kodachrome slide film, producing high-contrast theatrical effects that feel cinematic and vast. The images are further heightened using Photoshop and other digital means to build a more perfect order and symmetry. Cleary finding comfort in the notion of home and the effects of transcendent lighting, Oleon joyfully invites us into her private dreamscapes that reflect memories and times from her own existence and that also quite literally leave the door open for us to enter as well.

While each painting is of an actual place Oleon has visited and felt compelled to document, her edits and manipulations create visual sites that are open to all, like a gift. She attentively sets the scene for our entry and takes great measures to imbibe us with high drama, inviting our own memories and history to imbue and inhabit her spaces. The images feel eternal and profound, like the culmination of a time-lapse of an expansive dream relaying knowledge and the secret it’s all more than it seems.

Patti Oleon (b.1954 St.Louis, MO) received a BA and MFA in Painting/Fine Art from UCLA where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude. She is the recipient of a Fulbright Grant (Germany), the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Grant, two Pollock Krasner Foundation Grants and a Guggenheim Foundation Grant, amongst others. She has shown extensively in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and also in Dallas, TX. She lives and works in San Francisco, CA.