About Samantha Olschan
Samantha Olschan is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist & educator who works across animation, art, and design for brands, films, media, and experiences.
Her work explores the dialogue between image, typography, and culture to communicate complex narratives. Utilizing a blend of fine art and design, she establishes points tension, challenging conventional views and enriching the discourse on awareness, compassion, and visual communication. The work investigates how these elements influence perception and response, using aesthetic approaches to engage deeply with their narratives. Through manipulating time, movement, color, photographic elements, and typographic forms, she creates layered meanings that reflect the experiences of marginalized groups and is dedicated to building empathy and amplifying the voices of underrepresented communities.
Recent exhibitions and screenings include the P.O.V. Series (PBS), The ShortList (PBS), The Connecticut Art Directors Club, Tag Gallery Los Angeles, Las Laguna Gallery, Gallery Omnibus, Hollywood North Film Awards, The William Benton Museum of Art, The Peninsula School of Art, Black Maria Film & Video Festival, New Haven International Film Festival, The Seattle International Film Festival, Boston Cinema Census, Boston Underground Film Festival, FrackFest, Visionfest, Tribeca Cinemas, Bumbershoot, The Gene Siskel Film Center, Marblehead Film Festival, The Skopelos Foundation for the Arts in Greece, and Womenwhodraw.com.
Teaching appointments in animation, design & media include: University of Connecticut, Pratt Institute, Wesleyan University, Quinnipiac University, Columbia College, New York Film Academy & The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Artist Statement
$n@¢K/t!m£ is a series of images exploring consent, consumer culture, entitlement, and women’s rights. The images in the series draw from social media, art history, and digital culture by combining classical sculpture, tech iconography, digital and/or manufactured analog glitches, with crowdsourced conversations from dating apps and direct messages (DM).
Created manually through digital collage, and imagined as alter egos in response to the rise of NFTs, AI image generators, and generative AI tools, the series is an embodiment of our automations, internet behaviors, and digital hoarding. It is deeply influenced by how the body and gender have been historically exchanged and displayed in traditional fine art, popular culture and the internet. The title references "leetspeak" as a communication system that evolved to circumvent filters that would otherwise flag content as inappropriate, or blocked. The slang expression “snack” is a gender inclusive description used for someone who is considered good enough to eat. The selected sculptural figures, glitch overlays, and DM subtexts invite us to concentrate on who, and how, we interact with and define beautiful objects. The work also gives emotion and agency to eternally silent figures through color, shape, and type. The artwork referenced within each piece questions our collective behaviors, selective memories, reforming relationships with narratives that have informed centuries of visual culture and gender roles.
Exhition
2024 “$n@¢K/t!m£ series” Connecticut Art Director Club Awards. Bridgeport. CT
“$n@¢K/t!m£ (i said hi),” Digital collage on acrylic. 36”x24”in. Variations 2024, Marblehead, MA
“The Glitchkeeper,” Digital collage on acrylic. 36”x24”in. The eARTh Gallery, Hoxton London, UK
“The Glitchkeeper takes a holiday,” Digital collage on acrylic. 36”x24”in. The eARTh Gallery, Hoxton
London, UK
“$n@¢K/t!m£ (good eve) ,” Digital collage on acrylic. 36”x24”in. Las Laguna Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA
“these truths 1.21.20,” Digital Print. 20”x16”in. Gallery Omnibus, Dresden, Germany.
2023 “$n@¢K/t!m£ (i said hi) ,” Digital collage on acrylic. 36”x24”in. Gallery Omnibus, Dresden, Germany
“$n@¢K/t!m£ (venus bittrix)” Digital collage on acrylic. 36”x24”in. Gallery Omnibus, Dresden, Germany
“$n@¢K/t!m£ (i said hi),” Digital collage on acrylic. 36”x24”in. Pennisula School of Art, WI
“these truths 1.21.20,” Digital Print. 20”x16”in. TAG Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2022 “$n@¢K/t!m£” Digital collage on acrylic. Series (4 of 8). 36”x24”in. The William Benton Museum of Art,
Storrs, CT
2020 “these truths 1.21.20,” Digital Print. 20”x16”in. The William Benton Museum of Art, Storrs, CT
“these truths 1.21.20,” Digital Print. 20”x16”in. Private Collection, Seigel, Reilly & Kaufman LLC,
Stamford CT
2019 “Class of 2032: Schooling for a Digital Culture,” Hollywood North Film Awards, Toronto, Canada
“Class of 2032: Schooling for a Digital Culture,” Dedham Country Day School, Dedham, MA
“Class of 2032: Schooling for a Digital Culture,” Homer Babbidge Library Visualization Lab, Storrs,CT
2018 “Class of 2032: Schooling for a Digital Culture,” The Learning Futures Network & Fogarty
EDfutures, Curtin University, Bentley WA, Australia
“Class of 2032: Schooling for a Digital Culture,” CT Film Festival, Bethel Cinemas, Bethel, CT
2016 “The Trouble,” Frack Festival, Oklahoma City, OK
Samantha Olschan | CV 2
2015 “One Sunday with Shakespeare,” Homer Babbidge Library, Storrs, CT
2014 “Boston Children’s Hospital: Hero Wall,” Boston Children’s Hospital Lobby, Boston, MA
“In the Family,” The Franciscan Center, Lourdes University, Sylvania, OH
“Creativity in Education,” New Haven International Film Festival, New Haven, CT
“Creativity in Education,” Amazon Prime Streaming, International
2013 “In the Family,” Peninsula Jewish Community Center, Foster City, CA
“In the Family,” Syosset Public Library, Syosset, NY
“Mysterieuse,” Marblehead Festival of the Arts, Marblehead, MA
“Blackbird,” International Online Release, Los Angeles, CA
“In the Family,” Exclusively streamed online at http://www.pbs.org/
“In the Family,” Oshman Family Jewish Community Center, Palo Alto, CA
“Mysterieuse,” Marblehead 2013 Winter Festival, Marblehead Little Theatre, Marblehead, MA
“Art Out With Your Heart Out,” Merlin Bishop Center, Storrs, CT
2012 “In the Family,” Royal University Hospital, Saskatoon, Canada
“In the Family,” Adrian College, Adrian, MI
“In the Family,” MacKenzie Health Center, Richmond Hill, CA
2011 “In the Family,” Seattle Jewish Film Festival.
“In the Family,” Canadian premiere TVO, Ontario Canada
2010 “In the Family,” Segments screened on “60 Minutes,” CBS, National
“In the Family,” BBF Center Biligual Screening, Chicago, IL
“In the Family,” Northwestern University in Qatar, Qatar
“In the Family,” American Society of Human Genetics Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA
2009 “In the Family,” National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MA
“In the Family,” National Conference on Breast & Ovarian Cancer, Heesch, Netherlands
2008 “In the Family,” University of Chicago’s Doc Films, Chicago, IL
“In the Family,” Milan International Film Festival, Milan, Italy
“Mysterieuse,” 27th Annual Black Maria Film & Video Festival, National Screening Tour
“Mysterieuse,” The Short List, PBS, National Syndication
“In the Family,” US premiere P.OV. Series, PBS, National Syndication
“In the Family,” The Center for Genetic Medicine, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
“In the Family,” E Street Cinemas, Wasington, DC
“In the Family,” San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, San Francisco, CA
“In the Family,” AFI/Silverdocs, Silver Springs, MD
“In the Family,” University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL
“Mysterieuse” Marblehead Film Festival, Marblehead, MA
“Mysterieuse” Indie Spirit Film Festival, Colorado Springs, CO
“Mysterieuse” Boston Cinema Census, Boston, MA
“Mysterieuse” Annual Boston Underground Film Festival, Boston, MA
“Mysterieuse” ACM Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA.
“Mysterieuse” Brattle Theater, Cambridge, MA.
“In the Family,” Gene Siskel Film Center, Northwestern Memorial Fund Pre-Screening, Chicago, IL
2007 “Mysterieuse” Seattle International Film Festival, Seattle, WA.
“Mysterieuse,” Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago, IL
“tri,” Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago, IL
“the practice of intentional solitude,” Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago, IL
2006 “Mama blows Away on a Rainy Day”, Monotype, Skopelos Foundation for the Arts,
Skopelos, Greece.
2005 “Construct-mas” The Ice Factory, Chicago, IL.
“Bibliodonna,” Gallery X, Chicago, IL.
nacktime_cloudvenus
snacktime_good eve
snacktime_i said hi
snacktime_venus bittrix