Fair Art Fair x The Auction Collective

Olivia Strange's multi-disciplinary practice spanning sculpture, painting, installation, moving image and poetry, is characterised by a layered narrative and highly visceral aesthetic. The work is concerned with disarming patriarchal descriptors via exploration of her Italian roots and draws on themes of Greco-Roman mythology, the female body & jouissance to portray an empowering image of queer female subjectivity. Since graduating with Distinction from Chelsea College of Art- MA Fine Art (2017) having received the Vice Chancellor Scholarship, Strange has exhibited at Annka Kulty’s Gallery presenting an ambitious large scale immersive installation as part of the inaugural Cacotopia show, Southwark Park Galleries, Unit 1 Gallery, Liminal Gallery (Solo Show), Every Woman Biennial and Basis Projektraum.

The aesthetics of my work- which is autobiographical- are heavily influenced by this period of my life and the roman column is a central emblem in this particular sculpture. Often seen supporting vast state official buildings such as banks and museums, I like the idea of subverting the identity of the column to destabilise its patriarchal roots and reimagine its iconography as a sickly sweet, soft cake like structure acting as platform for a new queer mythology. The use of oyster shells references the seaside and iconography of Italian renaissance painting whilst also antagonising the derogatory euphemisms surrounding sapphic culture. Witchy fingers suggestive of ‘femme fatale’ tickle the contents of oyster shells with their highly manicured talons whilst tentacle-like appendages undulate in between. Central to the work is a clamshell vulva-esque purse with a barbell piercing- both confronting and delicate in appearance- raised above the first layer of the sculpture on a miniature column or ‘alter’. Themes of mysticism, the female body, pleasure, eroticism are explored to offer an alternative language for desire, sexuality, fantasy, power-play whilst privileging queer experience and to portray an empowering image of female subjectivity.

Accolades

Education

Chelsea College of Art- MA Fine Art - Distinction

2022

Robert Walters UK New Artist Award (Longlisted)

Radical Residency VII - Unit 1 Gallery + Workshop, London

Zabludowicz Collection Masterclass 2022

2021

Ingram Collection Purchase Prize (shortlist)

Ellipsis Prints Commissioning Project for womxn + non binary artists, London — artwork displayed on

billboards across London

2020-21

London creative Network x SPACE Artist Development Programme