Kelly Olshan is a New York City–based visual artist and arts manager whose work explores the tension between aspiration, uncertainty, and the pursuit of an idealized elsewhere. Through three-dimensional paintings and site-responsive installations, she creates imagined landscapes populated by abstracted staircases, shifting horizons, and impossible pathways that question ideas of progress, arrival, and attainment.
Olshan earned a BFA in Painting from the University of North Carolina Asheville, graduating as valedictorian, and an MA in Arts Administration from Columbia University. Her work has been exhibited nationally in solo exhibitions including Traverse at the Garment District Alliance’s Space for Public Art, New York; Someplace Else at Earlville Opera House, New York; Portals at Ground Floor Contemporary, Alabama; Reimagined Landscapes at Sean Christopher Gallery, Ohio; and Perpetual Pursuit: Painting the Unattainable at Tucker Cooke Gallery, North Carolina. Her work has also appeared in group exhibitions throughout New York City, including Artist Equity Gallery, Gallery Arte Azulejo, The Yard, and Yashar Gallery.
Olshan has participated in the ChaNorth Artist Residency through Chashama and the New York Foundation for the Arts’ Emerging Leaders Program. She serves as a panelist for the NYC Percent for Art Program and on the NYC DOT Public Art Advisory Committee, and has given artist talks and guest lectures at institutions including the School of Visual Arts, Rhode Island School of Design, the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, and Columbia University. She currently serves as Program Officer, Career Advice and Training at the New York Foundation for the Arts, where she manages professional development programs for artists.
“In a culture fixated on perpetual improvement, we tell ourselves, ‘Once I achieve X career or Y relationship goal, then I’ll be where I want to be.’ But that place never arrives. Once we achieve a goal, reality replaces the ideal, and our attention shifts toward the next destination. Elsewhere is a fictional place in our minds.”
— Kelly Olshan, 2026
Join NYC-based artist Kelly Olshan for a hands-on workshop exploring how overlooked and discarded materials can be transformed into wearable art. Participants will create a necklace or pair of earrings using found objects and “artistic artifacts” gathered from everyday life and the art-making process.
Participants are encouraged to bring small recycled materials from home or the studio—such as dried paint, used tape, broken sculpture fragments, yarn scraps, or other objects they find visually interesting. Kelly will also provide a selection of materials collected from local artists’ studios for everyone to explore and use.
Through basic jewelry-making and metalworking techniques, participants will experiment with composition, material, and transformation while discovering creative ways to reuse items that might otherwise be discarded. The workshop also offers a closer look at the materials and remnants generated through artistic practice, inviting participants to reconsider what holds value and creative possibility.
All experience levels are welcome. Materials will be provided, and participants are encouraged—but not required—to bring their own artistic artifacts.