Nathan Oliveira

Who was Nathan Oliveira?

Nathan Oliveira was an American painter, printmaker, and sculptor, born in Oakland, California to immigrant Portuguese parents. Since the late 1950s Oliveira has been the subject of nearly one hundred solo exhibitions in addition to having been included hundreds of group exhibitions, in important museums and galleries worldwide. He taught studio art for several decades in California beginning in the early 1950s when he taught at the California College of the Arts in Oakland. Then, after serving as a visiting artist at several universities, he became a Professor of Studio Art at Stanford University.

In 1999 Nathan Oliveira was awarded the Distinguished Degree of "Commander" in "The Order of the Infante D. Henrique," awarded by the President of Portugal and the Portuguese government, for his artistic and cultural achievements.

In 2002 "The Art of Nathan Oliveira," a major traveling retrospective of Oliveira's work, organized by the San Jose Museum of art, and guest curated by Peter Selz opened. The exhibition was accompanied by a monograph, "Nathan Oliveira," by Peter Selz with an introduction by Susan Landauer and essay by Joann Moser, published by the University of California Press.