recent works.
about.
Olivia Rees (b. 1990) is a Welsh visual artist currently living and working in Somerset.
Artist Statement
My practice focuses on exposing the vibrant materiality of our earthly ecology. I explore decentering the human from the ecological web by investigating a more open, plural and complex set of relationships in nature. I seek ways to shift focus towards the agentive and discursive ability of all material beings, showcasing how all matter is alive, interconnected, and in process.
My use of the ceramic medium as my primary means of expression has been central to this discourse. Physical, temporal, malleable and unpredictable, clay radiates a material agency. This characteristic allows me to examine a more expansive set of material relations. My most recent body of work exposes the entanglements, superimpositions, and fields of tension between nature, matter, and material culture. Through sculptural compositions I ask the viewer to reconsider their understanding of the cultural division between the natural and the constructed.
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 - TINCT, Ruup & Form, London
2023 - Bath Open Art Prize, 44AD Artspace, Bath
2023 - Wales Contemporary, The Waterfront Gallery, Pembrokeshire
2023 - Aquae Sulis, OXO Tower, London
2022 - GRWP, Fringe Arts Bath Festival, Milsom Place, Bath,
2022 - Origins, Michael Pennie Gallery, Bath and the Lifeboat Studio, Porthleven
2022 - Death of An Object, Sion Hill Gallery, Bath
2021 - In The Meanwhile, Milsom Street and Milsom Place, Bath
Residencies
2022 - La Meridiana, International School of Ceramics, Tuscany, Italy
2022 - Lifeboat Studio, Porthleven, Cornwall
Awards
2023 - Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial Trust Development Grant
2023 - ‘Highly Commended’ Bath Open Art Prize
2022 - The Porthleven Prize
2021 - 'Outstanding Academic Achievement' Bath School of Art, Vice Chancellors Awards
Education
2019 - 2023 - B.A. (Hons) Contemporary Arts Practice, Bath Spa University
earlier works.
2022.
2021.
2020.
