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About Olivia

Portrait of Olivia Brown, San Francisco fine arts Painter

Olivia Brown’s paintings are dynamic, fluid images which attempt to visually convey the sensual, visceral, tangible experience of movement and energetics. Brown believes we all have an innate comprehension of movement and energetics that is not based in language but in our natural animal-body wisdom. She structures her paintings to have a physical relationship to the body, aiming to give the onlooker a visual field within which their eye can roam and through looking, can then register somatically, intuitively, the physical feeling her subject matter. She studies different forms of corporeal practice, like dance and yoga, in order to deepen her own perception of awareness through movement. She uses a fluid medium of shellac and dye which captures the immediacy, velocity and momentum of movement in paint.

Olivia Brown was born in England in 1974 and grew up in Scotland and the USA. She did her undergraduate degree at Chelsea College of Art in London in 1997 before being swept off to fall in love with California where she got her MFA at CCA in 2003. She currently lives and works in San Francisco, CA, where she is currently represented by Hang Art Gallery.

Education


 

 

2003

MFA Painting

California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA

1997

BA (HONS) Fine Art Painting

Chelsea College of Art and Design, London, England

 

 

 

Represented by

 

 

2006 (ongoing)

Hang Art

San Francisco, CA

2008-2016

Joseph Wise Gallery

Laguna Beach, CA

2002-2006

Independent Resources

Santa Monica, CA-Agency providing artwork to client

2002-2004

Green Couch Staging

San Francisco, CA -Interior design staging business

1997-1999

The Students Gallery

Wimbledon, London, England

 

 

Gallery representing post-undergradute degree artists

Awards

 

 

2009

Artist Residency Grant

Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT

 

 

 

Solo Exhibitions

 

 

2017

Eclipse

Hang Art, San Francisco, CA

2011

Ecstatic Resonance

1045 Mission St., San Francisco, CA

2010

New Paintings

Prospect Restaurant, San Francisco, CA

2008

Chrysalis

Hang Art, San Francisco, CA

2004

Paintings

Twenty-two Shoes, Oakland, CA

2004

Curling-Color Paintings

049 Space (@Tehama Wireless) San Francisco, CA

2003

Movement-based painting

Rhythm and Motion Dance Center, SF, CA

2003

Motion/Still Painting

Papa Tobys Artbar, San Francisco, CA

1997

Four Paintings

Dogstar, Brixton, London, England

1996

Seven Paintings

Dogstar, Brixton, London, England

 

 

 

Group Exhibitions

 

 

2019

Remnants

Hang Art, San Francisco, CA

2012

Transitional Forces

Hang Art, San Francisco, CA

2008

Flow, Form, and Forces

Orchard Commercial, North First ARTSpace, San Jose, CA

2006

Alchemy

Hang Art, San Francisco, CA

2005

Marking Motion

The LAB, San Francisco, CA

2002

Under Over Sideways Down

Paulette Long and Shepard Pollack Gallery, CCA SF, CA

2000

Selections 2000

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA

2000/1999/1998

San Francisco Open Studios

The Blue Studio, San Francisco, CA

1999

The Ideal Home exhibition

Earl’s Court, London, England

1996

Sauce (co-produced/co-curated)

Spitalfields, London, England

 

 

 

Art Fairs

 

 

2022

San Francisco Fine Art Fair with Hang Art

 

2018

Context Miami with Hang Art

 

2012

San Francisco Fine Art Fair with Hang Art