Artist Bio
Olga Shute is a Missouri Based artist currently in her second year of Grad school at Missouri State University. She specializes in found object sculpture, collage and painting. Working with her hands and sculpting is just as important as the traditions of cooking, bracelet making, sewing, and prepping meals for family. In her practice she is researching how a displaced body due to race, social politics, and laws impacting the body and spirit. The work exists to show the labor it gives while showing the struggles of the Mexican American experience living in survival mode. She has shown work in New York at the Viridian Gallery, Alabama at the 2024 MSA conference, and (OLLAS) at the University of Nebraska- Latino/Latin American Studies. She has also exhibited work locally at Obelisk home and Springfield Little Theater. She plans to graduate in the spring of 2026 with her master's in visual studies.

Art Statement
Olga Shute is a Mexican American artist exploring her connection to culture and identity after feeling disconnected from her sense of self and community. After relocating from California to Missouri due to the housing crisis in 2008, she experienced a rupture in families, homes, and a feeling of belonging. She primarily creates mixed media sculptures, as well as Painting and drawing. In her art, she reflects on the challenges of keeping her family united after being uprooted from her cultural and familial ties. Her work seeks to mend or bind together her culture, it’s significance to a broken spirit and process of forming an identity.