COntemporary art noW, 2023

Keisha Prioleau-Martin | Aliza Sternstein | Mie Yim

Ibiza, Spain

July 12 - July 16, 2023

Booth #A5

Olympia is pleased to present a new body of works on paper by Mie Yim, oil paintings by Aliza Sternstein, and ceramics and works on canvas by Keisha Prioleau-Martin on the occasion of our debut participation in Contemporary Art Now. Together, the three New York-based artists capture bold recollections of their lives and textured emotional states of being. 

Keisha Prioleau-Martin’s paintings describe settings of uninhibited lusciousness in domestic and environmental spaces. In her sculptural and painterly practice, plant life and other symbols of wildness become beacons for untouched growth. Prioleau-Martin is as concerned with how to paint the forces stimulated by the feel of grass and leaves, a raw and sumptuous nature we experience within ourselves and that comes alive when we share that nature with others. Inspired by the shapes people make when they come together or when blissfully alone, and the funny, intimate stories that are told when individuals connect, her work is a celebration of relationships.  

Aliza Sternstein’s paintings are bold and dreamy, filled with gestures made from a delicate consideration of both the ephemeral and the preserved. Hearts and flowers are the subject of many of these paintings, which prompt us to reconsider the joyful and energetic nature of such symbols. Sternstein builds the canvas with layer upon layer of gesso to create a surface that is so absorbent, it maintains the history of marks, fingerprints, and wipeouts, which permeate across the paintings. 

Mie Yim creates color fields of a playfully profane sexuality; characterized by grotesque anthropomorphism and anatomical, sometimes pornographic, contours. The selection of works on paper speaks to the nuances of power and vulnerability. What often appears edible may in fact bite. Yim highlights the aura of existentialism, erasing the lines between fact and fiction to interpret her own personal trajectory within a self-made iconoclastic language.

All three artists incorporate an individualized approach to color and mark making, developing forms that are created through imagination and observation. 

Keisha Prioleau-Martinis an artist based in New York City. She earned her BFA at SUNY Purchase in 2017. Keisha's work has been shown across New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Hamburg, Germany. Prioleau-Martin has had solo shows at Olympia, ArtShack, and the former Art of Our Century. Her work has also been featured in group shows at DC Moore and Zurcher Gallerie.  Keisha is also a co-director of Underdonk in Bushwick, Brooklyn, where her studio resides. Her work has been written about in Hyperallergic, Art Spigel, Artnet, and The Coastal Post.

Aliza Sternstein was born in New York City, where she currently lives and works. She received her MFA from Boston University in 2016 and her BA from Brandeis University in 2013. Don’t Move Stones marked Sternstein’s debut solo exhibition (Olympia, 2022). Other notable venues include SPRING/BREAK (2020), Jip Gallery (2020), and Vacation Gallery (2019). Sternstein’s work has appeared in Artforum and Artnet News. 

Mie Yim was born in South Korea and lives and works in New York. 2023 solo shows include: Inna Art Space, Hangzhou, China; Simone Subal Gallery, New York, NY; and Olympia, New York, NY. Selected solo exhibitions include: ScottMillerProjects, Birmingham, AL (2022); Brattleboro Art Museum, Brattleboro, VT (2022); Galeria Mascota, CDMX, Mexico (2022); Villa Magdalena, San Sebastian, Spain (2021); Olympia, New York, NY (2021); the Durst Foundation, New York, NY (2019); Ground Floor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (2018); Michael Steinberg Fine Art, New York, NY (2009); Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY (2004); Galerie in Arco, Torino, Italy (2004). Mie Yim has been awarded numerous grants and fellowships including Yaddo Artist Residency, Saratoga Springs, NY (2022); Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant (2020); the Lillian Orlowsky and William Freed Grant (2018); the New York Foundation of the Arts Painting Fellowship (2021, 2015); and the Bronx Museum AIM Fellowship (1991). Mie Yim’s work is in the public collection at Nelsons Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO.