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Artist Envy: Olivia Kemp

I was first shown the work of Livvy by Claire Leach, someone whose work I have admired for a long time and helped inspire me a lot on my foundation in times of doubt.

Olivia completed an MA in Drawing at Wimbledon, London in 2013 and since then she has been working hard to create beautiful, intricate drawings which document nature and the idea of how this can take over. I feel a strong emotional connection to her work and the way that she has documented place. She chooses places people might overlook to turn into works of art is a skill she has mastered. She has a real ability to give mark making a representational narrative and this is something I want to push further.

Olivia is someone who motivates me to continue with what I do, despite how I feel. She is so dedicated to her craft and this is why I think she is so successful in what she does. She has gone back to the route of what is important within art, drawing and made it her own. I am so happy to see someone whose core practice is drawing is doing so well. She creates the kind of work you look at and tells the narrative of place in every detail. She is someone I look up to and have a lot of respect for as an artist.

Below I'll leave you her artists statement and examples of her beautiful work so you can see for yourself just how talented she is:

"The idea of nature slowly taking back its own is prevalent in Olivia's practice. She makes drawings of places and buildings in various states of takeover, the wilderness purposefully creeping back in. This surrender is something we see everywhere, all of the time. From the minute we build something nature gradually claws it back from us. Capturing these sites in this moment an imperative for her work. Drawing the pervasive change encapsulates a moment, one that we will not get back as the course of deterioration continues. The places Olivia draws are being taken back, undisturbed and steadfastly, we don’t try and stop it and most of the time it escapes our notice. It is an inescapable eventuality." - Livvy Kemp





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