NISOPROJECT
Olivia Bax
Cocoon, 2022
Olivia Bax is a sculptor who brings things together, creating ensembles of found and made objects, held together by metal armatures, chicken wire, cardboard and paper pulp. Her handling of these materials runs with and departs from established sculptural processes, simultaneously constructing, welding and modelling, and using the metal armature both as an inner supporting structure and as an active component of the final sculpture itself, pushing through and out of the modelled paper pulp. As well as construct and model, Bax also paints, but rather than being applied at the end, her paint is mixed into the pulp from the very start. This means that she works with colour both as a painter and as a sculptor might, modelling colour as one might clay.
Bax has a preference for conduit forms, such as pipes, funnels, tubes, chutes and hoppers, that suggest ideas of passage and transferral while carrying directional energies with them. She also uses forms of containment such as pockets, socks, sacks, sachets, cup and vessel that suggest temporary and tentative ways of holding and enclosing things. Hooks, handles, holding devices and other tool and prop-like objects are also deployed, enabling her to link one thing to another, suggesting relationship and connection, while highlighting difference through juxtaposition. Her sculptural set-pieces read as nesting structures, curious habitats and modes of habitation, personal spatial-material orbits coordinated by techniques of the body, such as sitting, reaching, leaning, kicking, holding, resting and pulling.
- Jon Wood, extracted from ‘Home Range’ exhibition text, Holtermann Fine Art, London, 2022
OliviaBax (b. 1988, Singapore) lives and works in London. She studied BA Fine Art at Byam Shaw School of Art, London (2007-2010) and MFA Sculpture at Slade School of Fine Art, London (2014-2016).
Recent solo exhibitions include:Home Range,Holtermann Fine Art, London (2022);Spill,L21, Mallorca (2022);Off Grid,Mark Tanner Sculpture Award Exhibition, Standpoint Gallery London (2020) toured to Cross Lane Projects, Kendal (2020/21) and Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens (2021);pah-d'bah, HS Projects, London (2021) andChute, Ribot Gallery, Milan (2019/20). Recent group exhibitions include:Material Impressions: Artists & Paper, Larsen Warner, Stockholm (2022-23);Reflections: Part 3: Sculpture by Women Artists, Workplace, London (2022);Flock,BoLee and Workman, Somerset, UK (2022);Weeds Won’t Wither, Jari Lager Gallery, Cologne (2022);On the Other Hand, with Brooke Benington at Canary Wharf, London (2021) andGleaners:OliviaBax & HannahHughes, Sid Motion Gallery, London (2020/21).
Prizes include: The Mark Tanner Sculpture Award (2019/20); Kenneth Armitage Young Sculptor Prize (2016), Additional Award, Exeter Contemporary Open, Exeter Phoenix (2017) and Public Choice Winner, Saatchi Gallery, London (2015). Bax’s work is part of private and public collections including: The Arts Council, The Ingram Collection and Tremenheere Sculpture Park.
Olivia Bax
Cocoon, 2022
Olivia Bax is a sculptor who brings things together, creating ensembles of found and made objects, held together by metal armatures, chicken wire, cardboard and paper pulp. Her handling of these materials runs with and departs from established sculptural processes, simultaneously constructing, welding and modelling, and using the metal armature both as an inner supporting structure and as an active component of the final sculpture itself, pushing through and out of the modelled paper pulp. As well as construct and model, Bax also paints, but rather than being applied at the end, her paint is mixed into the pulp from the very start. This means that she works with colour both as a painter and as a sculptor might, modelling colour as one might clay.
Bax has a preference for conduit forms, such as pipes, funnels, tubes, chutes and hoppers, that suggest ideas of passage and transferral while carrying directional energies with them. She also uses forms of containment such as pockets, socks, sacks, sachets, cup and vessel that suggest temporary and tentative ways of holding and enclosing things. Hooks, handles, holding devices and other tool and prop-like objects are also deployed, enabling her to link one thing to another, suggesting relationship and connection, while highlighting difference through juxtaposition. Her sculptural set-pieces read as nesting structures, curious habitats and modes of habitation, personal spatial-material orbits coordinated by techniques of the body, such as sitting, reaching, leaning, kicking, holding, resting and pulling.
- Jon Wood, extracted from ‘Home Range’ exhibition text, Holtermann Fine Art, London, 2022
OliviaBax (b. 1988, Singapore) lives and works in London. She studied BA Fine Art at Byam Shaw School of Art, London (2007-2010) and MFA Sculpture at Slade School of Fine Art, London (2014-2016).
Recent solo exhibitions include:Home Range,Holtermann Fine Art, London (2022);Spill,L21, Mallorca (2022);Off Grid,Mark Tanner Sculpture Award Exhibition, Standpoint Gallery London (2020) toured to Cross Lane Projects, Kendal (2020/21) and Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens (2021);pah-d'bah, HS Projects, London (2021) andChute, Ribot Gallery, Milan (2019/20). Recent group exhibitions include:Material Impressions: Artists & Paper, Larsen Warner, Stockholm (2022-23);Reflections: Part 3: Sculpture by Women Artists, Workplace, London (2022);Flock,BoLee and Workman, Somerset, UK (2022);Weeds Won’t Wither, Jari Lager Gallery, Cologne (2022);On the Other Hand, with Brooke Benington at Canary Wharf, London (2021) andGleaners:OliviaBax & HannahHughes, Sid Motion Gallery, London (2020/21).
Prizes include: The Mark Tanner Sculpture Award (2019/20); Kenneth Armitage Young Sculptor Prize (2016), Additional Award, Exeter Contemporary Open, Exeter Phoenix (2017) and Public Choice Winner, Saatchi Gallery, London (2015). Bax’s work is part of private and public collections including: The Arts Council, The Ingram Collection and Tremenheere Sculpture Park.