Rune Olsen

No Looking Back

Opening Reception:

Saturday, May 17th, from 6 - 8 pm

Marisa Newman Projects is pleased to present No Looking Back, a solo exhibition of new sculptural works and mixed media drawings by Rune Olsen. This powerful show delves into themes of memory, identity, and vulnerability, with a central copper and salt sculpture anchoring the exhibition—an ephemeral, life-sized figure that crystallizes both the fragility and endurance of the human condition.

Born in 1971 in Stord, Norway, Olsen draws deeply from personal experience to create figurative, emotionally charged sculptures using common domestic and industrial materials: copper pipes from hardware stores, mirrors, Q-tips, and household fixtures like sinks and shower curtains. In No Looking Back, Olsen expands this language to include raw salt—a material both ancient and unstable—to build a haunting human form that is as much about erosion as it is about preservation. The salt and copper figure stands as the exhibition’s emotional core: a body formed from a substance historically tied to survival, healing, and decay. It evokes the erosion of memory and the cost of carrying trauma, echoing Olsen’s own experience growing up queer on a small religious island in Norway during the height of the AIDS crisis.

Alongside this work, other sculptures reflect his ongoing engagement with eating disorders and neurodivergence.  Complementing these sculptures is a wall installation of intimate collage drawings, each 36 x 40 inches or smaller. These works, raw and layered, echo Olsen’s preoccupations with body dysmorphia, neurodivergence, and queer identity. They serve as fragmented portraits—moments of tenderness, anger, absurdity, and resilience.