Olivia Jia

This painting references archives, libraries, books and reams of paper as physical metaphors for memory. It shows a photograph sitting on an open book (or photo album); the image was found in Jia’s mother’s college photo album. The artist wrote, ‘Something in this photograph makes me think of friendship and caring and service, invitation and warmth, even between strangers; also dreams and sex and intimacy’. The subjects of the original photo are unknown but the act caught on camera makes it feel familiar and relatable. The composition of the image and the muted grey, green and yellow palette lend the painting a sense of calm and nostalgia. For Jia, the palette is deliberately surreal as a reminder that her paintings are not conventional still life works but rather imagined, psychological spaces.