Olivia Fraser (Profile)
Olivia Fraser (b. 1965, London, UK)
About her work
"Olivia Fraser somehow manages to use the ancient techniques of Indian painting with a modern and cross cultural twist - very much art for our Globalized world." - Marc Quinn
Following in the footsteps of her kinsman, James Baillie Fraser who painted India, its monuments and landscape in the early 1800’s, Olivia set out to paint the architecture of Delhi and its people. The hybrid form of Company School painting where Indian artists created works with mixed techniques and ideas from the East and West greatly influenced Olivia’s early work during the 1990s.
In 2005, she decided to study the traditional Indian miniature painting techniques under Jaipuri and Delhi masters, and now uses this in her work with the use of its gem-like stone colours; unique brush-work; and its elaborate decorative and burnished surfaces. Having been especially influenced by Nathdwara Pichwai painting and early 19th c. Jodhpuri painting, Olivia has been exploring its visual language, reaching back to an archetypal iconography strongly rooted in India's artistic and cultural heritage that can breach borders and be relevant to her twin life between East and West. The artist divides her time between London and New Delhi.
Her latest body of works is deeply rooted in her fascination with and practice of yoga and the ways in which yogic meditation involves visualizations of the garden, particularly the thousand-petalled lotus, which serves as a visual aid in reaching enlightenment. “The garden, an enclosed and cultivated area of landscape that’s formalized and acted upon, is fundamental to my work,” she says. “I take the vocabulary of landscape—trees, flowers, rivers, mountains and sky—and I deconstruct and reduce them to their essence.”
Education
- Master of Arts, Oxford
- Studied at Wimbledon Art College; 1987-1988
- Studied Indian miniature painting styles extensively, 2005 onwards
Selected Solo Exhibitions
- Amrit; Nature Morte, New Delhi; 2019
- The Lotus Within; Grosvenor Gallery, London; 2018
- Anahat; Solo booth at Art Dubai; 2017
- Sacred Garden; The Government Museum & Art Gallery, Chandigarh; 2016
- The Sacred Garden; Sundaram Tagore, New York; 2016
- India Art Fair; Grosvenor Gallery Solo Booth; New Delhi; 2014
- Subtle Bodies, in association with Art18/21, Norwich; 2014
- M on the Bund; Shanghai, China; 2014
- Sunaparanta Centre for the Arts; Goa; 2013
- Miniatures; Grosvenor Gallery, London; 2012
- Triveni Gallery; New Delhi, India; 2007
- Indar Pasricha Fine Art; London; 2003
Selected Group Exhibitions (Recent)
- Paradox and Play: Living Traditions in Contemporary Art; New Delhi; 2018
- Deck of Cards; British Council, New Delhi; 2016
- Gandhara Art; Art Basel Hong Kong; 2016
- Unfolding Perspectives; Deck Gallery, Singapore; 2015
- Frontiers Reimagined; Venice Biennale; 2015
- Forms of Devotion; China Arts Museum, Shanghai; 2015
- Modern & Contemporary Miniatures; Grosvenor Gallery, London; 2013
- Iconographic Investigations; Nature Morte, Gurgaon; 2012
- The Path of the Lotus; Grosvenor Gallery, London; 2011
Collections
- Museum of Sacred Art, Belgium
- Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), New York
- China Arts Museum
- Several other well-known Public and Private Collections in Australia, France, India, Singapore, UAE, USA and the UK