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 saturated, interlocking paintings metabolize elements of classical iconography alongside her lived experiences to explore themes of instability, continuity, collective inheritance, and belonging.
Her paintings have been included in exhibitions throughout the US, including at Massey Klein Gallery and Temple Contemporary, and have been featured in Visionary Projects NYC’s Directory and New American Paintings.
Contact:
www.instagram.com/oliviashermanana
Artist Statement
My paintings blend personal narrative and fantasy with elements of antiquity to explore historical memory and the strange persistence of the past in contemporary life. Drawing from a shifting personal iconography and my background in Classics, I consider the way history repeats and resurfaces to trace some of the unseen forces shaping our present.
Statuesque figures become architectural, locked in place among familiar contemporary artifacts and constructed spaces. Bodies dissolve into their environments, and graphic planes confront zones of abstraction. Weaving together past and present myths with processes of fragmentation and accumulation, these works muddy the line between reality and fiction to explore states of disorientation and in-betweenness.
I am interested in how the spaces within a painting could disrupt a linear conception of history, and how this reflects the associative ways we experience memory and time. Ultimately, these works engage with the intertwined nature of myth, desire, and inherited beliefs, asking how we are shaped by our collective past and entangled in the complexities of our present.
Selected C/V
Education
2020 / Temple University, Tyler School of Art / MFA (Painting)
2017 / University of Puget Sound / BA (Classics + Painting)
Press + Media
2026 New American Paintings, South Issue #178
2026 Honorable Mention Interview, Innovate Grant Spring Cycle
https://innovateartistgrants.org/interview-olivia-sherman-modern-antiquity
Select Exhibitions
2026 Mid-Atlantic New Painting Biennial, Ridderhof Martin Gallery, University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, VA
(juried by Alexis Assam, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)
2025 - 2026 Visionary Projects, The Directory: visionaryprojects.org/directory
2025 Group Show, ArtWorks RVA, Richmond, VA
2024 Vibrations, Gallery 405 at Black Iris Social Club, Richmond, VA
2022 Tacoma Armory Show, Tacoma, WA
Interconnection, Columbia City Gallery, Seattle, WA
Who We Are: Portraying Identity, Cabrillo Gallery, Aptos, CA (juried by Pauli Ochi of Ochi Projects)
2020 MFA Solo Exhibition, People Trying to Enjoy Things, Temple Contemporary, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA
2020 Tyler MFA Painting, Massey Klein Gallery, New York, NY
Certain Ground, curated by Tausif Noor, Philadelphia, PA
2018 Art By the Side of the Road II, Mission Hill Gallery, Boston, MA
Print and Paper Show (juried exhibition), 230 Fenway, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Kissing the Wall, SMFA Biannual Exhibition, Grossman Gallery, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA (juried by Franklin Evans)
2017 Art By the Side of the Road, Mission Hill Gallery, Boston, MA
Group Show, Arts Alive Gallery, Summit County Arts Council, Breckenridge, CO
Thesis Exhibition, Kittredge Gallery, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA
2016 AHSS Research Grant Exhibition, Collins Memorial Library, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA