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 19^th 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