Olivia Kays
oliviakaysart@gmail.com
Kays is interested in what happens to lived experience after it has happened, in the sense of what remains, what changes, and what can be made from it. Through cognitive reframing and aesthetic sublimation, she translates emotional complexities into visual and material forms. Instead of attempting to reproduce an experience, she considers what it might become when given another form. Cognitive reframing allows her to change the relationship to an experience without changing the fact that it happened. The painting becomes a place where something can be acknowledged and reorganized through color, form, and material. Beauty is consequential to her practice in the sense that she’s interested in beauty not acting as a vessel for escape from difficulty or as a conclusion to it, but as a way of staying in relation to an experience while allowing it to change and grow. Ornamentation, color, and visual pleasure allow complexity to exist and move without being required to be reduced to pain. Kays’s work asks whether something can retain the weight of its origins while taking on a different emotional life. “Can I make something tender out of something that wasn't?” What is at stake for her is the possibility of transformation without erasure.
She is continuing her schooling and is pursuing her Master of Fine Arts at the LeRoy E. Hoffberger School of Painting. Her work is currently spread throughout Indiana and Maryland for permanent displays and exhibitions.
Education
MFA 2025-Current. LeRoy E. Hoffberger School of Painting, Maryland Institute College of Art
BFA 2022-2025. Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Visual and Performing Arts, Purdue University
Internships
Fall 2026: Graduate Teaching Internship, Introduction to Fibers, Maryland Institute College of Art.
Fall 2025-Spring 2026: Graduate Teaching Internship, Undergraduate classes at Maryland Institute College of Art.
Spring 2025: Gallery Assistant, The Weather Station Gallery and Artist-Run Project Space.
Recent Exhibitions:
Ongoing
Featured Artist, Solo Wall Installations, Adee’s Tulips, Fells Point, Maryland.
Featured Artist, Solo Wall Installation, The Eleventh House Coffee, Lafayette, Indiana.
Featured Artist, Affogato Cat Cafe, Fells Point, Maryland.
Featured Artist, PermaVibe, Permanent Makeup Studio, Downtown Lafayette, Indiana.
2026
“OUT OF ORDER” Annual Benefit Exhibition and Sale 2026, Maryland Art Place Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland.
Digital Exhibition, “Summer 2026 Show,” Penn Journal of Arts.
Solo Wall Installation with Artwork Displayed Throughout Establishment, The Lobby by Greyhouse Coffee, Downtown Lafayette, Indiana. 2025-2026.
2025
LeRoy E. Hoffberger Graduate Fall 2025 Show, “What Use Is The Ocean,” Riggs & Leidy Gallery, Fred Lazarus IV Center, Baltimore, Maryland.
“Under 2500 Benefit Exhibition and Sale 2025," Maryland Art Place Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland.
Purdue Senior Spring 2025 Exhibition, “Untitled,” Rueff Gallery, Pao Hall, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.
National Society of Arts & Letters Visual Arts Competition and Exhibition 2025, FAR Gallery, Bloomington, Indiana. Artwork: “Free In My Heart!” featured on promotional flyers.
Purdue Juried Undergraduate Exhibition 2025, Robert L. Ringel Gallery, Stewart Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. Awarded First Place in Painting.
Solo Display in Purdue University Art Office 2023-2025, Third Floor of Rueff School of Design, Pao Hall, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
2024
Purdue Juried Photography Exhibition - 2024, Patti and Rusty Rueff Gallery, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.
“Emptiness- 2024 (3rd Annual Exhibition and Promotion),” Biafarian, International Online Exhibition.
“Anti-War 2024 (3rd Annual Exhibition and Promotion),” Biafarian, International Online Exhibition.
“People - 2024 (2nd Annual Exhibition and Publication),” Biafarian, International Online Exhibition.
“Existence: Birth, Life, Death - 2024 (Annual Juried Exhibition, Promotion, Sales),” Biafarian, International Online Exhibition.
“Boundless - 2024 (Annual Juried Exhibition, Promotion, Sales),” Biafarian, International Online Exhibition.
“True Beauty - 2024 (3rd Annual Exhibition, Promotion, Sales),” Biafarian, International Online Exhibition.
“Still Life - 2024 (2nd Annual Juried Exhibition, Publication, Sales),” Biafarian, International Online Exhibition.
2023
“Indianapolis Art Center College Gallery Invitational Exhibition 2023,” Indianapolis Art Center, Indianapolis, Indiana.
“HMVC Gallery [Unveiling The Layers] 2023,” Displayed in New York on Screens in Times Square, International Online Exhibition.