olivia elaine lorber
Fine artist based in Milwaukee, WI
Olivia Elaine Lorber is an artist from Baltimore, Maryland living and working in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She received her BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design in 2022, where she focussed on narrative figure painting and art history. Olivia has exhibited her paintings at the Miller Art Museum, Walker's Point Center for the Arts, Allen Priebe Gallery, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee’s Union Art Gallery, and Var Gallery. She was part of the 8th cycle of Plum Blossom Initiative’s Bridge Work residency program in 2023 and was a teaching artist in residence for Milwaukee Recreation’s 2024 Creative Allies program. Olivia continues to explore themes of womanhood, introspection, and the natural world in her surreal oil paintings that fill the walls of her home studio.
painting
Acrylic and oil figure painting is a significant part of my studio practice. The figures I create are often symbolic of personal narratives and memories.
drawing
Drawing is the other half of my studio practice. These small scale works are often where my stories begin, inspiring larger paintings later on.
artist statement
Through a combination of oil, acrylic, and found materials, I create figurative scenes that emphasize the mystifying characteristics of the natural world. The symbiotic interactions between body and nature are the driving forces of my studio practice, focusing deeply on themes of womanhood, introspection, and earthly metaphors for different emotions or lived experiences. I use portraiture as a means of storytelling, often altering my own likeness with exaggerated proportions, adornments or lack thereof, and symbolic eye contact. This emphatic treatment of the portrait works harmoniously with magnified natural subjects to develop an uncanny yet romantic portrait of our cultural landscape. The surreal quality of my paintings is enhanced by my interest in folk tales, Pagan symbolism, and superstitions. My paintings are the amalgamations of both personal and historical stories that ask the viewer to find the deeper meanings in our everyday experiences.