Born in 1994 in NYC, Olivia Sherman is a painter based in Richmond, Virginia. She holds bachelor's degrees in Classics and Painting from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, and earned her MFA in 2020 from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. Her paintings incorporate elements of personal narrative, fantasy, and history, utilizing a fluctuating iconography alongside loose historical references to grapple with her experiences. 

​

Weaving together themes of belonging, connection, intuition, and ritual, these works muddy the line between reality and fiction to reflect on many ways of participating in this life and engaging with one another. Through flattened perspectives, manipulated light, and zones of distortion, they examine the surreal, often contradictory sensations of being alive in a world that is increasingly digitized, overstimulating, and absurd. 

​

Ultimately, these paintings grapple with human vulnerability, and investigate themes of connection and alienation, the physicality of our bodies, and many of the complexities of being a human in our time.