About

Irrational Exhibits

Performance  Installation – Video Art

Screens are the interface of our time, not just for entertainment, but for social, personal and business connections as well. One evening of LIVE ART can counter months of screen time and isolation.

In IRRATIONAL EXHIBITS (curated by Deborah Oliver), artists perform simultaneously in a spacious immersive environment that changes you from detached viewer to living participant. This is a unique blend live/sculptural/durational performance where artists bring the audience into a kinetic and visceral experience. Move freely through the gallery and dwell as long as you time want at each of the performance works exhibited. You are no longer just an observer you are a participant as well. The show creates itself with you and around you.

Deborah Oliver

Biography | Download CV

Performance | New Genres | Continuing Lecturer
Art Department
University of California Irvine

MFA, California Institute of the Arts
BFA, California Institute of the Arts

Deborah Oliver is an educator, independent curator/cultural organizer, and interdisciplinary artist. She grew up in Waltham, Massachusetts and received her BFA and MFA from California Institute of the Arts. Her practice is focused on the intersection of Performance Art, it’s history, the practice and the curatorial discourse in and around community exchange. She is the founder and curator of Irrational Exhibits; irrationalexhibits.com, an immersive performance/installation and media exhibition she began in 2001 at Track 16 Gallery, in Los Angles California. In 2019 the 11th edition of Irrational Exhibits: Place Making and Social Memory took place with eighteen participating artists at the Bendix Building in Downtown Los Angles in five galleries. The 10th Anniversary Edition took place in June 2017 at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions with generous support provided by The Metabolic Studio, a direct charitable activity of the Annenberg Foundation. Since this series began she has curated over 200 artists in these exhibitions. Oliver has been a faculty member at the University of California Irvine, Art Department since 1998 where she teaches Performance Studies and New Genres. As part of her pedagogical approach to teaching her students present a public performance after each ten-week quarter class.  Making over 60 public events with her students. These public events build a strong community connection between the students in the department. In 2015 Oliver co-founded “The Art of Performance in Irvine” an annual performance event dedicated to experimentation in live art, which takes place at the xMPL, Experimental Media and Performance Lab at UC Irvine. This annual series will launch its 6th edition in Spring 2021.  Artists in this series includes; George Herms, Simone Forti and Friends, The Rachel Rosenthal Company, Fallen Fruit, and Rudy Perez.

Ann Bray, Deborah Oliver, Ryan Bulis and Brian Black at IE 9 at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions

Deborah Oliver, Ann Bray, Ryan Bulis and Brian Black at IE 9 at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions

Irrational Exhibits 6 at Track 16 Gallery Bergamot Station Santa Monica CA - Deborah Oliver curator

Irrational Exhibits 6 at Track 16 Gallery Bergamot Station Santa Monica CA