New Blood artists Olivia Mansfield and Mary West are both in the show Visions of Healing, running until February 15 2023 at Hallam Conference centre, London. This show has been curated alongside Spirit Within – a show ending Sunday – at the Ben Oakley Gallery in Greenwich. Olivia’s work features there too, and she actually co-curated Visions of Healing.
Enjoy browsing their available work, some of which is curated below.
Mary describes her process:
“My paintings are rooted in landscape, but as I paint they take on a life of their own. Veering between abstraction and figuration, the initial intuitive marks I make and the drips of paint provide a framework from which the painting can emerge.”
Olivia says of her paintings:
“My work looks to highlight a discourse between landscape, the wilderness, sublime nature and how we as human beings fit, mould, morph, move and adapt within it.”
And this is what the curator of Visions of Healing posted about working with Olivia:
“Olivia Mansfield been one of our favourite and most exhibited artists since the gallery launched last year, starting with her solo show Rosa Oculus August 2021, moving onto group show Into the Cosmere, and as of August 15th featuring the figurative and landscape sides of her practice in our concurrent groups exhibitions Spirit Within & Visions of Healing.
But her art and exhibiting aside, Olivia, as most who are friends of the gallery will attest, reaches far beyond her incredibly hard working practice. Not only does she juggle being a full-time artist and full-time mum, but puts an untold amount of heart and time into empowering and supporting fellow members of the emerging UK scene.
Olivia embodies the essential nature of community in the world of art without pretence. She is an art lover with endless capacity for care and compassion.
I asked Olivia to co-curate VOH for a multitude of reasons, one of course being her excellent eye when it comes to installation. But more so for her ability to realise a big idea with a human first approach, when the gallery couldn’t alone.“