Olivia Brazier, b.Hertfordshire, UK 1991
Olivia is a Hertfordshire artist based in Glasgow working primarily in collage and painting. Inspired by a youth of living in the South of France, her work incorporates Mediterranean foods and the sunshiney life-style. Her work focuses mainly on the relationship between women, food and sex. These three themes are forever linked in a multitude of ways, such as in language (ripe, past her sell-by-date, juicy... ) and through how society accepts and describes them.
Art history is filled with depictions of nude women, however naked women in pornography are not afforded the same admiration. Olivia’s work seeks to replace the shame and objectification which surrounds women's sexuality and appetite with humour and surprise. This change of narrative brings together women and the food they are so often objectified alongside, creating an image of beauty that forces the viewer to reassess their original judgment and celebrate them instead.
By exploring the connection between food consumption and erotica the line between them becomes blurred resulting in surreal imagery. In her collages women from vintage pornography magazines can be found playfully interacting with oversized foods taken from cookbooks. The resulting images portray the subjects as surreal nudes in either regal interiors or embedded into nature.
However in her watercolour & ink pieces, the food becomes the sex symbol. Fruits and vegetables are drawn in pin-up model poses embodying female glamour.
Group Exhibitions
2024
-Curtains, The Alchemy Experiment, Glagsow, UK, 02/05/24-26/05/24
-A Hot Minute, Multiple Venues (Gallery Merrick, Ashdale Gallery and Christine Klassen Gallery), Canada, 14/02/24-13/04/24
2022
-It's a Cabbage Christmas Party, Strange Field, Glasgow, UK, 16/12/22-18/12/22
-Food For All, Kings Hill House, Dursley, UK, 26/10/23-28/02/23
-Family Affair, Menton Societe Anglaise, Menton, France, 16/03/2022-12/04/2022
2019
-Ripe Beings, White Crypt, London, UK 29/06/019 - 27/07/2019
-SuperCuts, Deptford Art Hub, London, UK 29/03-31/03/2019
2018
-This Is What Makes Us Girls pt.3, The Garibaldi Hotel, Northampton, UK, 21/12/2018
-Thrills and Spills, Peer Forum Exhibition, Camden Arts Centre, London, UK, 17/10/2018
2017
-Naughty and Nice, Sweet Art, Espacio Gallery, London, UK - 18/12/2017 -
23/12/2017
-CurAte, Clapton Depot, London, UK - 16/09/2017
-Nasty Women Wigan, Cross Street Gallery, Wigan, UK - 19/08-02/09/2017
-BonArt Charity Auction, Childrens Chairty of Monaco, La Turbie, France -03/06/2017
-Junk in the Trunk, Bones & Pearls studios, Copeland Park, Turf Projects & Bomb Factory, London, UK, 25/05–28/05/2017
2016
-WORK IT! Art Licks Weekend, A-side/B-side Gallery, London, UK - 29/09-
02/10/2016
-Princes Trust Exhibition, Darren Baker Gallery, London, UK -
29/09/2016
-Future Late, Tate Modern Turbine Hall. London, UK - 17/06-19/06/2016
Solo Shows
2019
Bites and Pieces, Apricus Osteria & Bar, Apricale, Italy, 16/08/2019 -
19/09/2019
2018
Les Pêcheuse, Galeries des Pêcheurs (AIAP Unesco), Monaco, 16/11/2018-
30/01/2019
2017
Fruit Drawers, Comité AIAP Unesco, Monaco - 10/10-13/2017
Tickle Me Pink! Hotel Novotel, Monaco - 23/03/2017
2016
Colour Flux, Studio Rudolf Nureyev, La Turbie, France - 02/09-05/09/2016
Articles & Written Information
2024
-Create! Magazine, Issue 44, The Annual Women's Issue
2022
-Porridge Magazine, Issue Six
-Riviera Connects, Family Affair exhibition review
2020
-Words With... Online artist interview
2019
-Elephant Magazine, Feeling Fruity? The Collage Artist Getting Busy With
a Pair of Scissors, written by Louise Benson
-Elephant Magazine, Ripe Beings, The Female Artists Embracing the
Organic, written by Louise Benson
-Reform The Funk, Introduction to a World of Women in a Wildly
Outlandish Way, written by Bethany Burgoyne
2017
-The Riviera Woman, Fruit Drawers review
2016
-Leap into the Void, Olivia Brazier’s Super Foods
-Arcane Contemporary Art Magazine
