Olivia Jia

BIO

Olivia Jia received a BFA from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia in 2017. She has had solo exhibitions at Margot Samel, New York, NY and Workplace, London, UK. She has been included in group exhibitions at venues including Workplace, London, UK; Commonweal, Philadelphia, PA; La Nao, Mexico City, MX; Margot Samel, New York, NY; Nathalie Karg Gallery, New York, NY; Yee Society, Hong Kong; Marginal Utility, Philadelphia, PA; Mana Contemporary, Chicago, IL; The Woodmere Museum 78th Annual Juried Exhibition, Philadelphia, PA; and Dongsomun, Seoul, Korea, among others. Her work is in the collections of the Palm Springs Art Museum, CA; Huamao Museum, Suzhou, China; Zuzeum Art Center, Riga, Latvia; The Bunker Artspace, Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, West Palm Beach, FL and Xiao Museum of Contemporary Art, Rizhao, China.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I paint imaginary tableaux of books and ephemera, often strewn across a fictional rendition of a desk or workspace. The images that are depicted on these pages pull from my collection of source material including, among other things, objects belonging to me or my family, photographs that I take, family photographs, and both American and Chinese art history. I draw formal and poetic relationships between objects across culture and time. I think of my paintings as a space where meaning can be excavated and found, made anew through juxtaposition. Painting is the mechanism by which I shape the objects and narratives that inform my being in the world. My paintings are proudly subjective, about my subject position and claiming no territory beyond that. In this project, personal and historical sources have equal weight and exist ready at hand. For me, diaspora is a position of empowerment that leaves space for self-determination, to declare the boundaries of my history, and to identify the moments, movements, places, and people that are my lodestones. These works are ultimately psychological self-portraits.

Interview with Olivia Jia

Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you became interested in becoming an artist? 

Art was the first subject I ever loved. My mom put me in a ton of extracurriculars as a kid but I never liked any of it. I can’t muster the energy or the dedication to do things that I don’t care about. School was similar; I skated by with decent grades and minimal effort. In high school, I really fell in love with observational drawing. I also took my first oil painting class during junior year of high school and it’s been my favorite thing ever since.

Can you tell us about some of your most memorable early influences?

I had no access to formal art history or the contemporary art world until attending art school. However, much of the visual culture I grew up around feels incredibly impactful in hindsight, from Pennsylvania Dutch glassware to thrift store tchotchkes; school field trips to Amish craft festivals; old farmhouses that speckled the edges of the suburbs, with metal stars embedded in their facades; then trips to visit family in Shanghai, and the vastly different landscape of ephemera and architecture I found there.

Where are you currently based and what brought you there? Are there any aspects of this specific location or community that have inspired your work? 

I moved to Philadelphia for college in 2012 and I’m still here. Philadelphia has a thriving artist-run and non-profit gallery scene. It is a really supportive and down-to-earth space for young artists. My favorite local gallery, Marginal Utility, closed recently after over a decade of wonderful programming. It was run by David Dempewolf and Yuka Yokoyama. Their program, which always addressed contemporary art through a critical lens, extended beyond exhibitions to include lectures and discussion groups. Seeing their exhibitions taught me how to think about art.

What is your studio space like? What makes your space unique to you? 

I had a home studio for many years but now I have a studio at the Crane Arts building in Philadelphia. I’m hoping to use the space to experiment with different materials and processes. Although I am fairly married to oil paint, I think it is really important to maintain discovery and novelty as part of studio practice.

What is a typical day like? If you don't have a typical day, what is an ideal day? Do you work in large chunks of time, or throughout the day?

My method requires that certain sections of a painting be completed in one sitting, so that all the edges meet and blend correctly. For example, when I paint books, the page edges all have to be done in one sitting and can require between 10 to 20 hours in a row to complete. I try to take a day off every two to three studio days to counterbalance the long sessions.

What gets you in a creative groove or flow? Is there anything that interrupts your creative energy?

I need audio content! I’ll listen to anything - audiobooks, podcasts, music. I have to match the intensity of the content with the level of focus I need on different sections of the painting. Right now I’m revisiting my favorite classical novels as audiobooks. 

How do you maintain momentum in your practice? Is there anything that hinders or helps your focus? 

Maintaining momentum becomes a lot easier for me when I have works in progress going at all times; an empty studio is a bit of a nightmare.

What medium/media are you working in right now? What draws you to this particular material or method? 

I make oil paintings on wood or wood composite panels. I love the solid presence of paintings on wood, their inflexibility, stability and resoluteness. The paint sits differently on the surface than it would on canvas. I love the history of painting on wood, including icon paintings and devotional paintings from the middle ages and early renaissance. Painting on wood also has such a special resonance with other histories. I love looking at painted chests and furniture, and architectural elements in Chinese gardens.

Can you walk us through your overall process in making your current work? Does drawing play a role in your process? 

Most of my preparatory work is in researching images and reference material. I might make a few marks with pencil to delineate any sharp lines to be aware of in the composition. I start each painting with a loosely painted layer, a kind of underpainting where I lay out basic shapes and a color space that I refine as the painting progresses.

What is exciting about your process currently?

I like having a process that isn’t too rigid. Things can really shift through the process of making the painting, and the works are quite improvisational. I might entirely repaint an image and replace it with another that I think better suits. The process is all about finding a rhythm for the painting, both in terms of composition but also in terms of implied narratives and relationships between objects and their histories.

Can you talk about some of the ongoing interests, imagery, and concepts that have informed your process and body of work over time? How do you anticipate your work progressing in the future?

My paintings are essentially self-portraits in which I seek to depict a psychological or cognitive landscape. They are efforts to define the parameters of my sense of self through cultural, art historical, and personal references. I use fictional workspaces, desks, books, or torn book pages as metaphors for the mind. Depicted upon these pages are images and ephemera ranging from art history to family photos; snapshots I take through daily life to things found in junk shops. My parents immigrated to the United States from Shanghai in the 1980’s, and many of my paintings reference family history and Chinese art history alongside things that feel familiar to me as a Pennsylvanian. I collect snuff bottles and other small antiques because my family doesn’t have many heirlooms or other material possessions from the past, and so holding an object made by a craftsperson that is so related to art history and cultural heritage feels very meaningful.

Over the next few years, I hope to focus more on making more complex, larger paintings, which contain more relationships between images and allow for more nuanced narrative possibilities.

Do you pursue any collaborations, projects, or careers in addition to your studio practice? If so, can you tell us more about those projects, and are there connections between your studio practice and these endeavors? 

I used to write a lot. I drafted affidavits as a paralegal, edited and wrote grants for myself and others, and contributed exhibition reviews to Hyperallergic. I am taking a break from writing to focus on my studio work, but when the time is right I’d love to write essays about the artists I admire and work on small publications.

Have you had any epiphanies recently that have changed the course of your work or caused you to shift directions?

No. Things are slow and steady!

Can you share some of your recent influences? Are there specific works—from visual art, literature, film, or music — that are important to you?

I love gothic novels and their particular blend of horror, psychology, desire and interpersonal relationships, familial or otherwise. Wuthering Heights is one of my all-time favorite classic novels. Ottessa Moshfegh is probably my favorite contemporary writer. The film adaptation of “Eileen” blew me away. I’m reading her newest novel, “Lapvona,” right now.

Some of the films I can’t stop thinking about are Eyes Wide Shut, Virgin Spring, The Wicker Man, and Annette.

Can you elaborate on a recent work of yours, and tell us the story of how it came to be? 

One of my favorite recent works is “Night reading (moonscapes, garden window).” In blue tones, it depicts an open book with an image on each page. The left-hand page contains a self portrait, a curtain, and a full moon; the right-hand page contains a seven-sided window from the Yu Yuan garden in Shanghai, the city where my grandmother lives. All the windows in the garden are different shapes. Through the window is a sliver of a moon and branches that are based on a tree on my street in Philadelphia. I was thinking about family and longing and the distance between these two spaces where I am in Philadelphia and where my grandmother is in Shanghai - and how those spaces can be collapsed in the space of a painting.

Have you overcome any memorable roadblocks or struggles in your practice that you could share with us? 

I don’t know if this really qualifies as a roadblock, but I realized shortly after graduating from my BFA program that the way I like to paint is difficult to contain within the structure of a program or an institution. I think I’ve realized that the paintings have to dictate their own timeline to me, not the other way around.

Who are some contemporary artists you’re excited about? Is there a recent exhibition that stood out to you?

Alicia Adamerovich; Rubens Ghenov; David Dempewolf; James Miller; Ditta Baron Hoeber; the late Leroy Johnson. Louise Giovanelli’s exhibition Soothsay at Grimm in New York was fantastic.

Do you have any tips or advice that someone has shared with you that you have found particularly helpful? 

A number of friends from artists to gallerists have stressed the importance of saying no and setting professional goals and boundaries. I’m at the beginning of my career and I want to say yes to everything, but I’m learning that this is not a healthy or sustainable practice—self care is crucial!

What are you working on in the studio right now? What’s coming up next for you?

I’m participating in Independent with Margot Samel in May of 2024, and then I have a solo exhibition with Workplace in London during October of 2024. I’m currently researching images and references for those works.

To find out more about Olivia Jia check out her website and Instagram.