Olivia Strange's multi-disciplinary practice spanning sculpture, painting, installation, moving image & poetry is characterised by a layered narrative and a highly visceral aesthetic. Historical hetero-patriarchal narratives are dismantled through re-writing ancient mythologies via a queer feminist lens. As a practicing witch herself, the historical persecution of witches & gender-marginalised people - for their sense of self-directed feminine power, intellectual and sexual freedom - is a recurring theme in Strange’s work, as well as the landscape of fantasy and otherworldly dimensions. Themes of pleasure, jouissance, desire, power, spirituality and escapism are explored by subverting universal codified objects, gestures and icons to portray an empowering image of queer subjectivity with the hope of cultivating empathy for continually othered experiences.
Graduating with Distinction from Chelsea College of Art ( MA Fine Art (2017) having received the Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarship, Strange has been selected for the Radical Residency 2022 at Unit 1 Gallery, longlisted for the Robert Walters UK New Artist Award 2022, shortlisted for the GIRLPOWER Residency 2023, selected for the 2021 cohort of the SPACE Studios x London Creative Network Artist Development Programme, the Ellipsis Prints 2021 Commissioning Project, and was a finalist of the prestigious Ingram Collection Purchase Prize 2021. Additionally, she was awarded 'Critics’ Choice' for her stand with Liminal Gallery at London Art Fair’s PLATFORM section curated by Gemma Rolls-Bentley consequently was interviewed by FETCH magazine discussing her practice, background and inspiration. Strange has since shown with Shoreditch Modern Gallery in the group show ‘Pleasures’ which was featured in Hunger magazine. Strange presented her first Solo Show at Liminal Gallery in Margate in July 2024 titled ‘It Softens the Blow, That Deep Melodic Bliss’ consisting of nine new painting and sculpture works which explore notions of escape and survival through snapshot moments of euphoria, and pleasure as an act of resistance.
Strange has exhibited at Liminal Gallery as part of Margate Pride Art Trail, Shoreditch Modern Gallery, Annka Kultys Gallery, Southwark Park Galleries, ArtOn Istanbul, Unit 1 Gallery, Every Woman Biennial, Basis Projektraum, and London Art Fair. Most recently, Strange has exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery (London) in Entangled (2025), SelfSame at art’otel Hoxton (2026) and presented her ambitious solo exhibition ‘The Real Housewives of Apotropaica’ at Second Act Gallery in London (Nov 2025) which received critical acclaim and editorial feature press coverage in The Cold Magazine and Flicker magazine (cover). In 2026, Strange is currently exhibiting at Saatchi Gallery in The Sun and Moon: Art Inspired by the Celestial in the midnight room which focuses on witchcraft, ritual and myth- a recurrent theme and research interest of the artist.
Strange lives and work in London.
S E L E C T E D E X H I B I T I O N S
2026, Division of Labour Gallery, London — UK
2026, The Sun and Moon: Art Inspired by the Celestial, Saatchi Gallery, London — UK
2026, International Womens Day auction AOAPC — UK
2026, Micromania, Kalkman Gallery, Maastricht — Netherlands
2026, SelfSame, art'otel curated , London — UK
2025, Salon III, Liminal Gallery, Margate — UK
2025, Solo exhibition - 'The Real Housewives of Apotropaica', Second Act Gallery, London — UK
2025, The Salon x Stratum Gallery, The Other House, London — UK
2025, Reverie Des Fleurs, The Salon, London — UK
2025, Entangled, Saatchi Gallery, London — UK
2024, Solo exhibition - 'It Softens the Blow, That Deep Melodic Bliss', Liminal Gallery, Margate — UK
2024, PLEASURES, Shoreditch Modern Gallery, London — UK
2024, PLATFORM curated by Gemma Rolls Bentley in partnership with Charleston Museum, London Art Fair, (Solo Presentation) Liminal Gallery — UK
2023, Sweet Garden of Vanishing Desires — ArtOn, Istanbul — Turkey
2023, Take My Hand — Unit 1 Gallery, London — UK
2022, Bunch — Liminal Gallery x Hotel Michele, Margate — UK
2022, Fair Art Fair x Auction Collective — works selected by Marcelle Joseph & Tabish Khan — online auction
2022, Bag, Pedestal, Rabbit, Potato — Staffordshire St. Gallery, London — UK (exhibited + curated)
2022, Radical Residency Show — Unit 1 Gallery, London — UK
2022, Womxn II — Unit 1 Gallery, London — UK
2022, I Took My Power In My Hand, POW Thanet, Margate — UK
2022, Solo Show — The Pleasures We Feel — Liminal Gallery — Online
2022, Art On A Postcard, International Womens Day Hepatitis C Trust
2021, Ingram Collection Purchase Prize - Unit 1 Gallery & Workshop, London — UK
A W A R D S , G R A N T S & R E S I D E N C I E S
2024
Critics Choice, PLATFORM London Art Fair
2023
GIRLPOWER residency (shortlisted)
2022
Robert Walters UK New Artist Award (Longlisted)
Radical Residency VII - Unit 1 Gallery + Workshop, London
Zabludowicz Collection Masterclass
2021
Ingram Collection Purchase Prize (shortlist)
Ellipsis Prints Commissioning Project for womxn + non binary artists, London — artwork displayed on billboards across London
2020-21
London creative Network x SPACE Artist Development Programme
2016
Space Studio Award (shortlist), London
2015
Vice Chancellor Scholarship 2015 MA Fine Art Chelsea College of Art
P A N E L D I S C U S S I O N S , A R T I S T T A L K S & P O D C A S T S
2025, Entangled, artist talk and tour, Saatchi Gallery, London — UK
2025, Liminal Gallery Podcast
2024, PLEASURES, panel discussion, Shoreditch Modern Gallery, London— UK
2024, Girl, Get A Real Job podcast, Pursuit of Pleasure live panel with Sara Karpanen, London— UK
2024, LOVE & LIFE – SHINING A LIGHT ON CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS RESPONDING TO QUEER LIFE IN THE UK- panel discussion chaired by Gemma Rolls Bentley, , London Art Fair, London — UK
2023, Panel Discussion chaired by curator Charlotte Leez-Smith , Take My Hand — Unit 1 Gallery, London — UK
2022, Artist Q&A interview with curator Louise Fitzjohn, I took my Power in my Hand, Liminal Gallery, Margate— UK
E D U C A T I O N
2016, MA Fine Art, Chelsea College of Art (Distinction) — London
2007, Falmouth College of Art (BA Hons) — Falmouth
2002, Chelsea College of Art (Foundation) — London
P R E S S
2025, The Cold magazine, editorial interview for 'The Real Housewives of Apotropaica' solo exhibition
2025, Flicker magazine, cover + editorial interview for 'The Real Housewives of Apotropaica' solo exhibition
2024, HUNGER magazine
2024, Fetch Magazine
2024, Wired Up Magazine
Hypebae — review 'Take My Hand' (2023)
Seb's Art List — review Take My Hand (2023)
Wide Walls, 2021
Hero Magazine- Ingram Prize, 2021
Fad Magazine- Ingram Prize, 2021
The Art Newspaper, 2021
Aesthetica, 2018
GalleriesNow, 2017
ArtRabbit, 2017
AQNB, Annka Kultys Gallery, 2017
The Organ, 2017
Dream Idea Machine ART VIEW, 2017