Sophia Olivieri
Artist's Statement
Olivieri works across contemporary modes of painting and sculpture, incorporating unconventional materials such as textiles, metal and prosthetic silicone within her works. Her work interrogates the naturalisation of gender and female sexuality, while subtly toying with notions of public versus private space, bodies and intimacy. Throughout her practice, Olivieri returns to skin as both a conceptual and material surface, examining it’s fragility and negotiation between the internal and external. She often hybridises skin with delicate materials and imagery, placing it in tension with the abject and industrial to reveal the relationships between the sensual, the domestic and the manufactured. Archival imagery, domestic objects and urban topography are also used as recurring tools throughout her work, investigating different avenues in which familiar objects and iconography can be disrupted and recontextualised through new materials.
Biography
Sophia Olivieri b. 2002 in Sydney, is an emerging artist living and working on Wallumattagal land. In 2024, Olivieri graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Distinction from UNSW Art & Design and was awarded the People’s Choice Award in the Kudos Emerging Artist Awards for her work ‘Porcelain’. Since then, she has presented both solo and group exhibitions across numerous artist-run-initiatives, event spaces and council galleries throughout Sydney. Most recently, Olivieri presented her second solo exhibition ‘Tender Containments’ at Prop Gallery Ashfield, featuring eight works exploring femininity, intimacy and skin as both material and metaphor. She was also recently included in Schmick Contemporary’s group exhibition ‘Doll Factory’, alongside three other artists exploring bodily presence through object.
