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alumna olivia ethington selected for midwest nice arts’ storytelling exhibition 

October 1, 2024


Olivia Ethington, from the series “The things to say will be there when you need them,” 2024

USU BFA Photo alumna Olivia Ethington (’24) has a photograph included in Midwest Nice Art’s latest online exhibition, “Art as Storytelling.” Juried by Aline Smithson of Lenscratch, the show reflects all facets of contemporary art, from photographs to painting to video and sculpture. “The work is personal, political, complex, and beautiful,” Smithson says. “It’s a collection of deep seeing and thinking, so important for our world today.”  

The selected photograph is from Ethington’s recent BFA thesis, “The things to say will be there when you need them,” in which Ethington visually navigates her ever-shifting relationship with her grandfather who suffers from dementia.  “I never know what to expect when I walk through the door. It could be a good day, and he’ll remember my name. Or maybe it will be a bad day, and he won’t use my name for fear that he will get it wrong,” Ethington writes. “The repetition of color, light, and shape throughout the pictures reflects the cyclical conversation I have with my grandpa, the gaps in sequence mimicking the gaps in memory.”

Midwest Nice Art is a collective based in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Grounded in traditional Midwestern values, the collective integrates virtual and physical practices to support emerging and underrepresented artists.