Long Island City, New York
Pat Oleszko
Fool Disclosure
Sculpture CenterSculpture Center presents the first solo exhibition in a New York City institution in over 35 years of Pat Oleszko. Rooted in humor, sharp social commentary, and defiance of all forms of authority, Oleszko's practice has often taken the form of sculptures which lend themselves to raucous performances that use linguistic wit to address various concerns, including accessible housing, women’s issues, and world politics. As her work developed from the 1970s on, Oleszko devised two strategies: using her body, which led to costumes, and using air, which produced large inflatable works. In both cases, her art “walked out the door,” in her words, and she began “using all the world as a stooge.” For performances and events, Oleszko continues to create a universe of characters, demonstrating a lifelong commitment to worldbuilding and to “wearing her work,” from dressing up as different characters for a waitressing job in her early days in New York to presenting at the Winter Olympics and appearing in movies, festivals, and theaters worldwide. Spanning both floors of Sculpture Center, this survey exhibition is constructed around Oleszko’s singular inflatables, which first appeared in the 1980s, and brings together dozens of these airy, monumental works for the first time. From Yupasaurus (1980), a dinosaur that satirizes developers aggressively buying up land in New York, to Quit Draggin’ (2012), a towering dragon that bemoans a slow response to the climate crisis, they offer a rare glimpse into this vital aspect of her work. The exhibition also includes other key works from her decades-long career, such as costumes, sculptural chapeaux, films, performance documentation, and archival material from the 1970s to the present. The presentation will be accompanied by the artist’s first institutional publication, which expands on the performance histories around her sculptures with newly commissioned essays by Columbia University professor and art historian Julia Bryan-Wilson; New York-based cultural worker, writer, and researcher Marie Catalano; Budapest-based curator, writer, and artist Gyula Muskovics; and American chef, food writer—and close friend of Oleszko—Ruth Reichl, along with a biographical timeline by the artist in her own idiosyncratic language. The publication will be designed by Tiffany Malakooti. Pat Oleszko: Fool Disclosure is curated by Sohrab Mohebbi, Director, and Jovanna Venegas, Curator, with Sharon Liu, Asymmetry Curatorial Fellow. Research assistance by Ray Camp, 2025 Summer Curatorial Fellow. Pat Oleszko was born in Detroit (1947). She lives and works in New York City. Oleszko received a BFA from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Since the early 1970s, she has staged projects and performances at institutions such as Museum of Modern Art, New York (1976, 1977); The Kitchen, New York (1979, 1992, 1993); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1980, 1988), Performance Space 122, New York (1985, 1987, 2000), Museum of Contemporary Craft (now Museum of Art and Design), New York (1971-1990), P.S. 1 (Queens), Lincoln Center, New York (1990), Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (1989, 2015), Civitella Ranieri, Umbertide, Italy (2019), Neuberger Museum, Purchase, New York (1993, 2019), Rauschenberg Foundation, Captiva, Florida (2016), National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C. (1991), and King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, New York; among others. She was the recipient of the Rome Prize in 1998, and the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1990.