Marianna Olague

Marianna Olague paintings are about living in the borderland desert of El Paso, Texas. She composes brilliantly hued portraits of friends and family, all natives of El Paso. Often viewed engaged in ordinary activities, her subjects know firsthand what it’s like to live in the often harsh environment of the Mexican border. Ever present in her work, the border or frontera, appears as a fence or rock wall offering protection and privacy, but also delineates an inescapable socioeconomic condition. Despite the circumstances of lives nurtured in the barren desert and low-income Mexican-American neighborhoods, Olague’s narrative portraits open our eyes to the strong community and wild beauty found within

 

Marianna Olague holds a Master of Fine Arts in painting from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Her undergraduate degree is from the University of El Paso, El Paso, TX. Her work is in multiple private and public collections including the Rubin center for Visual Arts in El Paso, TX and Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, MI. Olague was awarded a Chinati Foundation Residency in 2021 and is a finalist in the 2022 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition at the Smithsonian Museum’s National Portrait Gallery. She lives and works in El Paso, Texas. Olague is represented by David Klein Gallery, Detroit.