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elements of personal narrative, fantasy, and history, utilizing a fluctuating personal iconography alongside loose historical references to grapple with her experiences. 

 

Investigating themes of belonging, connection, intuition, and ritual, these works reflect on many ways of participating in life and engaging with one another. I pull from elements of reality and fiction to explore the surreal, often contradictory nature of the world as it becomes increasingly digitized, overstimulating, and terse. Ultimately, my paintings wrestle with themes of connection and alienation, the physicality and vulnerability of our bodies, and the complexities of being a human in our era.