Kathie Olivas is a multi-media artist who resides in Tampa and Albuquerque.
She received her BA degree in Visual Arts from the University of South Florida in 1999 and has a line of limited edition vinyl toys.
She began drawing portraits as a child and found an extreme love for creating from her imagination a world that did not exist in her own reality, often driven by her connection with the alter ego and reflective of her own experiences with a rare genetic disorder.
For almost three decades, her work has explored society's insatiable desire to assign 'cuteness' and our discomfort with the unknown. With a dark blend of early American portraiture set in post-apocalyptic times, her paintings and sculptures are a satirical look at how fear affects our sense of reality. Her wide-eyed children and anthropomorphic creatures are meant to evoke a nostalgic reaction that reflects isolation and uncertainty, yet they also act as empowered alter egos. While these characters explore their new lonely worlds, they double as our narrators, capable of developing their own defense mechanisms. They guide us through their reality as they experience it, and yet, even in their company, we are granted no reassurance.

Olivas worked as a portraitist and caricature artist in the early to mid 90's while attending college at the University of South Florida in Tampa, FL. Before graduation, she began her early gallery curatorial work at Hyde Park Fine Arts and Covivant Gallery, putting together numerous exhibitions featuring artists from around the globe that connected to a narrative or character-driven vision.
Her long career in the arts has allowed her to exhibit at galleries and museums around the world and also to connect to other visionaries and collaborators.
She and her husband, Brandt Peters, own and operate Stranger Factory Gallery in Algodones and the internationally acclaimed artist collective, Circus Posterus.



SELECTED SHOWS

2021
Dreambags and Jaguar Shoes, Kirk Gallery, Denmark

2020
Strange Girls (solo) Haven Gallery, Northport, NY
Popland (group) Kock x Bos, Amsterdam
Snake Oil (2 person) Sally Centigrade

2019
Elixir (solo) Stranger Factory

2018
ART TOYS (group) Topic Museum, Tolosa, Spain
Afterlife (solo) Stranger Factory, Albuquerque, NM

2017
Strange Days (solo) Stranger Factory
Outer Limits (2 person tour)  Stranger Factory, Sally Centigrade, Denver, CO, Secret Fresh, Manilla, Philippines
 (2 artist) Dorothy Circus, Rome
Cirque Noir (3 artist) AFA, NYC

2016
Monsters & Misfits III (Curated/ Sponsored group) Tokyo

2015
Mourning Apparitions (3 artist) Stranger Factory

2014
Safe From Tomorrow (solo) AFA, NYC

2013
Scout (solo) Stranger Factory
(solo) AFA, Las Vegas

2012
Haunted (solo) AFA, NYC
Carnival Of Spectres (Circus Posterus Collective) Artoyz, Paris

2011
Sweet & Sorrow (solo) Stranger Factory, Albuquerque, NM July
Monsters & Misfits (3 artist show) Kusakabe Mingei-kan (Kusakabe Folk Art Museum), Hida-Takayama, Gifu Japan
Lyric (group show) 323 East Gallery, MI

2010
Living Between Worlds (2 person show), Gallery 1988 Los Angeles April
4 person Show, Opera gallery, NYC

2009
Sentimental (solo show), Copro Gallery, Los Angeles

2008
Bittersweet (solo show) Gallery 1988 San Francisco
Mergers & Acquisitions (2 person) Thinkspace Gallery, Los Angeles, CA