statement

My work is inspired by travel to iconic landscapes that contain volcanoes, rift lines, lava flows, geysers, caves, icebergs and, most recently, the aurora borealis.

The aurora is a continually moving phenomenon caused by atmospheric gases interacting with solar particles. Echoing the aurora's flux, I have translated its continuous ebb and flow into a language of additive marks and fluid gestures. I build the drawing with layers of gouache and ink lines, subtract with sandpaper and ink washes, and then reconstruct again. Like the aurora, each image is a provisional manifestation of an evolving process.  

bio

education:

School of the Art Institute of Chicago, MFA, 1977

selected awards/honors

Illinois Arts Council, Governor's International Arts Exchange Award, 2007
Margaret Klimek Phillips Artist Fellowship, 2003
American-Scandinavian Foundation Awards 2001, 1994
Fulbright Grant, 1993

selected publications

The Watercolour Artists Sketchbook, Quarto Press, London, England, p. 104 - 109, 2005
Margaret Klimek Phillips Fellowship (catalog), Phillips Estate, p. 57 - 63, 2004

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Ryerson Gallery: Icebound, Deerfield, IL, 2008
Crown Gallery, Loyola University: Olivia Petrides & Rhonda Gates, Chicago, IL, 2007
Las Manos Gallery: I See/ Icy: Sarah Krepp & Olivia Petrides, Chicago, IL, 2005 Hellenic Museum: In the Realm of Arktos, Chicago, IL, 2004

selected group shows

The Studios of Key West: Chicago Artists/ Works on Paper, Key West, FL 2010
Illinois State Museum: The Leaf & the Page, Chicago, IL 2009
Sande Webster Gallery: Alonzo Davis Fellowship Exhibit, Philadelphia, PA, 2009
Evanston Art Center: Trace/ Memory, Evanston, IL, 2009