Olivia Sterling’s paintings are cropped, zoomed-in vignettes rendered in vivid colour and bold, exuberant style. In her paintings, depicting flailing limbs and often involving traditionally British food and drink, such as Victoria sponge cake, strawberries and cream, with the food chaotically smeared, splatted or exploding, Sterling undermines the ‘prim and proper’ garden parties and bunting of associated with Britishness. A distinctive feature of Sterling’s work is her incorporation of letters, numbers and lines into her paintings. Denoting specific blocks of colour on the canvas, these markings are symbolic of the categorisations and compartmentalisation forced upon those with particular skin tones and differing identities. ...
