Natalie Olson

Natalie Olson is an artist and astrophotographer whose work examines the relationship between cosmic systems and human perception. Rather than treating the universe as metaphor or symbol, she approaches it as a physical reality—governed by forces such as gravity, motion, pressure, and light—forces that also act upon the human body. Working across astrophotography and painting, Olson treats these practices as parallel forms of observation. Her astrophotography documents celestial bodies and phenomena directly, focusing on structure, movement, and scale rather than spectacle. Her paintings operate as material responses to those same systems, shaped by fluid behavior, resistance, accumulation, and collapse. Olson’s process is grounded in attention to how systems behave under force. She allows materials to record motion and stress, producing surfaces that hold evidence of pressure, adaptation, and continuation. Some works resolve into abstraction; others retain recognizable structure. Form is not predetermined, but emerges through interaction with physical conditions. Based in Easley, South Carolina, Olson works from her home studio, developing bodies of work that bridge external space and internal experience. Her work invites viewers to encounter the cosmos not as distant or symbolic, but as something physically present—operating through the same laws that govern matter, bodies, and perception.