Oliver Vernon was born in New York in 1972. He received his BFA from Parsons School of Design in 1995.
He has exhibited his work in cities across the United States, including New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego, and Chicago. He has also exhibited in London and Toronto. His work is part of numerous collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Visually, Oliver Vernon’s paintings draw upon an incredibly varied pool of influences, from abstract expressionism to post-pop surrealism and the polished finish of figurative realism. Formally, his work is about the deconstruction and hence the necessary reconstruction of visual space. From this central dichotomy, many others emanate: logic / illogic, physical / metaphysical, imprisonment / liberation. Drawing inspiration from his metropolitan surroundings in New York, and the great early surrealists such as Miro, Matta and Ernst, and painters of the mid 20th century, including Motherwll, Kline, Pollack, Mitchell and Dekooning, Vernon’s early work began displaying modernists inspirations that yielded novel, fantastical possibilities for capturing form and movement.

His paintings come to us, perhaps, as detailed snapshots of the few primordial milliseconds when the blueprint of the universe was being sculpted from the final throes of chaos. In this sense, anything goes. Each painting has its own set of rules, or rather, the rules are bent, broken, and ultimately formed within each painting. Color, form, energy, architecture, good, evil, flesh, and machine are lurking, never as physical entities, but as transient archetypes searching out their final places within the framework of the cosmos.

Apart from this macro view, Oliver’s work can be seen at the micro level as well. We can view his paintings as representations of how the mind is formed from a foundation of thought, reason, and aesthetics, and how these entities are simultaneously at odds and interconnected.

His move from Brooklyn, NY to Grass Valley, CA in 2010 changed his relationship with nature, and nature changed his relationship with his work. In this new partnership with his surroundings, Vernon’s work presents new visualizations of interdependent organic and humanity-constructed environments. Using multiple layers and planes of space, his paintings capture both macro and micro views of worlds in convergence – a dance between man-made infrastructures and the origins of life.

Oliver Vernon lives and works in Grass Valley, California.


EDUCATION

1992-1995 BFA, Parsons School of Design, New York
, NY
1990-1992 University of Vermont, Burlington, VT


SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2019
KIRK Gallery, Brushing Away the Veil
Mirus Gallery, Denver (USA), Awaken the Chrysalis

2018
KIRK Gallery, Collaborative exhibition with Christian Calabro

2013
Renegade Trajectories at Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, NY

2012
Tilt at David B. Smith Gallery, Denver, CO

2011
Sprung at Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, NY

2010
Oscillation Throttle at Meta Gallery, Toronto Canada
New Works at David B. Smith Gallery, Denver, CO

2009
Double Down at Irvine Contemporary Art Gallery, Washington DC
New Works at David B. Smith Gallery, Denver, CO
New Works on Paper at Meta Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Unexpected Occurrences at Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, NY

2007
Macro/Micro at Irvine Contemporary Gallery, Washington DC
Oliver Vernon at Microcosm Gallery, New York, NY

2006
Infinity Within at Lineage Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2005
Live Paintings Remixed at Jan Larsen Fine Art, Brooklyn, NY
Modern Mantra at Lineage Gallery, Burlington, VT

2004
Far at Spector Gallery, Philadelphia, PA


GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024
Urban Fractions, KIRK Gallery, Aalborg, Denmark

2023
Urban Fragments, KIRK Gallery, Aalborg, Denmark
Refractions, KIRK Gallery, Aalborg, Denmark

2022
Urban Currents, KIRK Gallery, Aalborg, Denmark
Out in the Open, KIRK Gallery, Aalborg, Denmark

2020
Inside Out, KIRK Gallery, Denmark

2017
North International Art Fair, Denmark, KIRK Gallery
Scope International Art Fair, Basel, Switzerland, KIRK Gallery

2016
Scope International Art Fair, Miami, Alexander Chambers Gallery

2015
Context International Art Fair, Miami, Fifty24MX Gallery

2014
Momentum, 3-person show with Mars-1 and Damon Soule, Space Gallery, Denver

2013
Cosmic Terrain, 3-person show with Mars-1 and Damon Soule, Petaluma Arts Center, CA
Direct Address: An Inaugural Group Exhibition at Joshua Liner Gallery,
New York, NY

2012
artMRKT Contemporary & Modern Art Fair, Bridgehampton, NY
Summer Group Exhibition at Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, NY

2010
Further at Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, NY
SCOPE International Art Fair with David B. Smith Gallery, New York, NY

2009
Street/Studio Group Exhibition at Irvine Contemporary Gallery, Washington DC
Group Exhibition at Richard Heller Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
Harley Davidson presents The Art of Rebellion at the Bergamot Station Arts Center,
Santa Monica, CA
Aspect:Ratio Group Exhibition at Irvine Contemporary Gallery, Washington
Group Exhibition at David B. Smith Gallery, Denver, CO

2008
Aspect: Ratio, Small-Format Paintings at Irvine Contemporary Gallery,
Washington DC
Mapmakers an Inaugural Group Exhibition at Meta Gallery, Toronto
, Canada
Uncorked at Urban Angel, London, UK
365 at 111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Groundwork II at Foundation One Gallery, Decatur, GA
Locked & Loaded at Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, NY
Limited Addiction: Anniversary Group Show at Limited Addiction Gallery, Denver, CO
Group Show at MicroCoSM Gallery, New York, NY

2007
Saturnalia: Festival of Gallery Artists for the Winter Season at Irvine Contemporary Gallery, Washington DC
Josh Keyes and Oliver Vernon at Limited Addiction Gallery, Denver, CO
Claimin Space – Context and Urban Art: A Visual Arts Exhibition for the 2007 Bumbershoot Arts Festival at BLVD Gallery, Seattle, WA
Oliver Vernon and Damon Soule at Boulevard Projects, Seattle, WA
Elevation at Limited Addiction Gallery, Denver, CO
Group Show at Lineage Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2006
Square Foot at Thinkspace, Los Angeles, CA
Mescalito at White Walls Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2005
Identity Crisis at Lineage Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Convergence at The Showroom NYC, New York, NY
Minds Wide Open – traveling exhibition at Light Space Gallery, Venice, CA/ Around The Coyote Gallery, Chicago, IL/ Microcosm Gallery, New York, NY

2001
The Armory Show with Modern Culture Gallery, New York, NY

2000
Start! at Modern Culture Gallery, New York, NY