Olivia Sherman

Region: South

 My paintings incorporate elements of personal narrative, fantasy, and history to explore themes of belonging, connection, intuition, and ritual. They reflect the many ways we engage with this world. Questioning the universe we’ve built, I examine the sensations of being alive in a society that is increasingly digitized, overstimulating, and terse.

Moments of tension and instability permeate these spaces, as figures and objects strain to control, comfort, coexist with, or disengage from one another. Drawing from my background in Classics, I am fascinated with history and troubled by the false promises and catastrophic consequences of the concept of an empire in its many forms. How do subtle expressions of power and coercion condition our bodies? How do we adopt the belief systems that define us; and what will we leave when we’re gone?

Channeling my experiences and observations, these works grapple with themes of impression and connection, the physicality and vulnerability of our bodies, and the complexities of being human.