Pat Oleszko

Dan Cameron | The Brooklyn Rail | 4th March 2026

When Oleszko took up burlesque dancing as an art student, it foreshadowed a flamboyant career. Fifty years later, her performance art is being celebrated (and vindicated) with a show of her inflatable sculptures and meticulous costumes. Says she, “I think of myself as a sculptor who happens to be using my body as the armature. My ideas are primarily visual, and I activate them through words, movement and situation. [I am proud that] I can actually reach people in a way that is unprescribed.”