Oleszko has spent much of her life as an artist working and living in New York City. Notably, she is one of the few artists who has garnered attention across a wide-breadth of cultural publications, from Artforum to Playboy to Sesame Street Magazine.[9] She's appeared on the cover of Ms. Magazine and had a striptease spread in Esquire.
The artist recalls being a frequent partygoer at Studio 54 and the Mudd Club in her 30s.[10]
In 1976, she was artist-in-residence at Artpark, Lewiston, New York.[1]
Of her early vocation and career as a performance art, she states:
"There wasn’t a term for “performance art” at the time, so one of my teachers came up with the idea that I could use my costumes as illustrations. That’s how I ended up in Ms. magazine. I wore an eight-and-a-half-foot-tall Statue of Liberty costume to the Easter Parade in New York City, and Kirsten came along with me. It was a hit."[11]
Much of the artists output has been large-scale and eccentric works. Some under this rubric are The Wizard of Oz's Wicked Witch's feet sticking out from a cabin, a rocket ship well over 50-feet, Rudolph's red nose operated by the artist dressed as a Christmas tree, a crocodile devouring a human-like American flag, phallic sculptures, and critical political caricatures.[12]
In her 1990 performance Nora's Art, she dramatically appeared from between the legs of a giant inflatable woman, now exhibited at David Peter Francis. Another performance, Bluebeard’s Hassle: The Writhes of the Wives (1989), was inspired by research on a serial killer and the seven deadly sins, featuring inflatables like Udder Delight that blossomed on stage like flowers.
In 2022, she was in a group show at JTT gallery in the Lower East Side.[13]
In 2024, Oleszko had her first major solo show in New York since 1990, at David Peter Francis in Chinatown.[6] The show included costumes, videos, archival material, a giant inflatable, and a “coat of arms” in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Surrealist Manifesto. Later that year she performed at “The Future is For/Boating” an intervention on the Staten Island Ferry. The performance included artists Amando Houser, Alex Tatarsky, and Abby Lloyd.
^ abcdHeller, Jules; Heller, Nancy G. (2013). North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. Routledge. p. 419. ISBN9781135638825.
^ abSchwendener, Steinhauer, Heinrich, and Elujoba, Martha, Jillian, Will, and Yinka (May 29, 2024). "What to See in N.Y.C. Galleries in June". The New York Times. Retrieved September 27, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
