WORK OF THE WEEK: Olivia Bax, Funhole, 2024

Our current exhibition; Olivia Bax: Handrailing is available to view in the gallery until 10th November 2024. Click here for more information.

Olivia Bax
Funhole, 2024
Steel, chicken wire, epoxy clay, plaster, paper, PVA, household paint, plywood, drain, wheels
193 x 84 x 93 cm
75 x 33 x 36 ⅗ in.

In these new floor pieces, I have considered the gallery space a great deal and in particular the theatrical nature of being able to view the gallery from the outside. ‘Funhole’ is a colourful stage; it has a portal cut into it: offering a hidden space to the viewer who interacts with the work from inside the gallery space. - Olivia Bax, September 2024.

During her training at the Byam Shaw Olivia Bax chose to become a very proficient welder, and in her early twenties was invited to be studio assistant to first Anthony Caro, and then Phyllida Barlow, who bequeathed her some of her paints from her studio. Funhole, on its long thin legs which rely on three tiny casters, makes use of these paints. It is elevated from the ground in a manner that merges sculpture and plinth, an approach that Bax credits to her previous influences.

Based in London, Olivia Bax gained a BA in Fine Art from Byam Shaw School of Art, London (2007-2010), before completing her MFA in Sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art in 2014-16. She is the recipient of The Mark Tanner Sculpture Award (2019/20) and Kenneth Armitage Young Sculptor Prize (2016). She has recently exhibited at Holtermann Fine Art, London (2024); Bo Lee and Workman, Bruton (2024); Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre (2023-24); Southbank Centre, London (2023); Hatch, Paris (2023) and Lustwarande, Platform for Contemporary Sculpture, Tilburg (2023). Bax’s work was acquired by the 2020-21 UK Arts Council Collection, and is also in the Ingram Collection and Tremenheere Sculpture Park.