Large, colorful abstract paintings by Pittsburgh-area artist Chuck Olson are displayed in an exhibition opening Sunday at the Butler Institute of American Art.

“Chuck Olson: Paintings from 2010-2024” features 22 canvases, some as large as 10-feet-by-12-feet.

Butler Executive Director Louis A. Zona said he first saw Olson’s paintings at James Gallery in Pittsburgh.

“It’s probably the best gallery in Pittsburgh representing the best artists in Pittsburgh,” Zona said. “I saw one of his paintings and thought this could be a really nice exhibition if he’s interested.”

Olson earned his master’s degree in painting from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1976, and he was a chairman and professor of fine art at Saint Francis University in Loreto, Pa., until 2019.

He also directed a university arts and language program in Parma, Italy, for 12 years.

Zona said what initially captured his attention was the scale of the abstract works.

“When you look at pictures, you don’t get a sense of the magnitude and intensity of the scale and how powerful the color is,” he said.

“It’s really bold, and it’s primarily blue and yellow with black here and there.

“It’s abstraction, which is generally a hard sell (with some museum patrons), but the few people I’ve teased about the exhibit really like it.”

In the artist statement on his website, Olson writes, “As an American painter educated within the last quarter of the 20th century, the powerful example of Abstract Expressionism, which marked the self defining American break with European modernism, pulled me into its energy and provided me with a way of seeing with which to respond to my experience.”

But he also acknowledged that his wife is French and he’s spent much time in Europe, so that “Franco American duality” is present in his work as well.

Olson’s paintings have been included in more than 300 solo, group, and juried exhibitions throughout the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Bermuda, Scotland, and Japan.

He also is a musician and currently plays in the band The 6.

A book, “Chuck Olson: Paintings 2010-2024” has been published in conjunction with the exhibition and will be available at the Butler for $70.

Zona penned the foreword for the hardcover book, which also includes an essay by contemporary art curator and historian Vicky A. Clark.

In the essay, Clark writes, “Chuck Olson approaches the blank canvas with intellectual curiosity and childlike wonder. He follows a protocol of trial and error, a course of action and reaction. This relation-based process is now instinctual, proceeding from past work while allowing something new to emerge at any stage.”

The exhibition will be on display through May 18. An opening reception is planned 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, and Olson will give a gallery talk at 2 p.m.

If you go …

WHAT: “Chuck Olson: Paintings from 2010-2024”

WHEN: Sunday through May 18 with meet-the-artist reception from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday and gallery talk at 2 p.m. Hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.

WHERE: Butler Institute of American Art, 524 Wick Ave., Youngstown

HOW MUCH: Admission is free. For more information, go to www.butlerart.com and 330-743-1107.

Staff photo / Andy Gray
Large abstract paintings by Chuck Olson fill two galleries at the Butler Institute of American Art.