MEET THE ARTIST
Who is Olivia?
Artist Bio
Olivia Bruce (b.1995) is a watercolor painter and mixed media artist born in Washington D.C. currently based in College Park, Maryland. She is a 2013 graduate from the renowned Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Washington, DC. Later, she studied Studio Art at Instituto Lorenzo de’ Medici in Florence, Italy. As a summer intern, Olivia worked alongside her now mentor Martha Jackson Jarvis. During this internship, Olivia expanded her knowledge of what it takes to be an independent artist. She was counseled, advised, and motivated to further her studies to achieve her goal in being an independent artist. In her remaining school years in New York, she earned a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from Marist College.
Olivia is establishing herself as a watercolorist. She is learning to make her own paper, natural dyes, and pigments to evolve her watercolor technique and process. Olivia often volunteers at Blue Light Junction in Baltimore where she experiments with earth tone colors and dyes extracted from plant life; here she learns how to create her own watercolor paints from the cultivated dyes. Olivia’s art focuses on the humanity and intimacy of her subjects. Her focus is to uplift the beauty and love for black and brown skin. Her perspective is to show how color harmonizes together in flow of movement.
Artist Statement
Olivia Bruce depicts the fluidity the body unveils in each painting. The artist uses watercolor paint to illustrate movement while highlighting the beauty of skin tones by layering hues of blue, orange, and yellow. Her paintings are a story of rhythm with every stroke and each gesture captured. To see her paintings, is to feel a sense of emotion, whether it be freedom or somber. The artist photographs subjects in movement, in harmony with oneself or in an intimate space with someone else. Her imagery holds a sense of purity, humanity, and beauty. As a Black woman, she sees beauty in herself and those alike; that same beauty glistens in the sunlight and even the darkness of the night. It’s not about race but about the beauty of color in movement. Olivia is intrigued how our bodies can tell a story and how color can drastically affect the narration. She paints these forms and figures so that audiences can subjectively view color through movement while also appreciating the form of each subject.