At Play : NCMA’s new exhibition
Join us for a special preview event on Friday, June 27, 6–8 pm, to celebrate NCMA’s new exhibitions, including the thought-provoking At Play – Artists & Entertainment, alongside May We All Grow Up to Be Children and Louis Comfort Tiffany – New Acquisitions.
🎨 Frank Olt at “At Play”
We are delighted that ceramic painter and Long Island University professor Frank Olt will be showing four dynamic ceramic paintings in the exhibition. Known for transforming glazed ceramic panels into painting-like works, Olt fuses media by glazing and firing ceramic panels, overlaying them with linen or burlap, removing sections to reveal the surface, and finishing with encaustic (heated beeswax pigment) drawings. His signature style incorporates gestural lines, abstractions evoking Japanese calligraphy, geometric forms, and subtle references to landscapes, architecture, and horizon lines.
Olt studied under Bauhaus ceramist Rose Krebs and has exhibited widely—including a solo show at Space 776 in 2021. His public art commissions include the large-scale Temple Quad Reliefs at NYC’s Court Square station and ceramic murals at Bellevue Hospital.
About “At Play – Artists & Entertainment”
This exhibition celebrates the universal and enduring theme of entertainment—from music, theater, and dance to film, sports, and celebrity culture. Featuring masterpieces by Picasso, Warhol, the Beatles’ photos, Chagall’s costumes for Die Zauberflöte, and more, At Play explores how artists across eras and cultures have portrayed the search for spiritual renewal through play and entertainment.
📅 Dates on view: June 28 – November 9, 2025
📍 Location: NCMA main gallery
Why visit?
Frank Olt’s ceramic paintings uniquely echo the exhibition’s theme: they evoke performance and play through layered materials and lyrical abstraction. His encaustic gestures and textile interplay resonate with the vibrant energy of entertainment captured throughout the show.
Come immerse yourself in this interwoven celebration of art, play, and performance!
Save the date—see you June 27!
Frank Olt’s Sailing Paintings
By Franklin Hill Perrell
These four ceramic panel paintings by Frank Olt all suggest sailboats through a strategy of abstract configurations that contrast sail and mast silhouettes and outlines with horizontal bands that suggest earth, sea, and sky. These areas are variously pigmented with ceramic glaze, at times using strong prismatic hues or more subtle mixed tones. Areas of gold luster are liberally applied, and in one instance brushed in such a way as to suggest beach grasses at the shore. With this combination of elements, the viewer’s interpretation is open-ended, inviting the creation of uniquely personal narratives. Olt’s work is never simply descriptive literalism. Rather, he deploys a semi-abstract vocabulary of shape and color in such a way as to reinvent perceptions of a memorable experience through purely aesthetic means. These paintings were inspired by the joy and freedom of sailing and its aquatic setting. At the end of the day, abstract design and pictorial inventiveness prevail. The inspiration of the sea around us, wherein Long Island is situated, is ever apparent. The artist maintains studios both in Oyster Bay, near the Long Island Sound; and on Fire Island, between the Atlantic Ocean and the Great South Bay.