Artist Spotlight: Irene Hardwicke Olivieri

Irene Hardwicke Olivieri

EVOKE welcomes to its roster of artists Irene Hardwicke Olivieri. “My vagabond heart has led me to live in a variety of habitats; each one finds its way into my paintings,” she says. An ongoing theme in Olivieri’s work is rewilding the heart, to inspire deeper connections to wild animals and wild lands. Her intricate, lovingly rendered paintings explore the subterranean aspects of life: love and relationships, obsessions, mortality. Primarily a painter, she also makes things out of bones, bringing old skeletons to life. A quotation from the poet Rilke is tacked to her studio wall: “Is not impermanence the very fragrance of our days?”

Olivieri was born in the Rio Grande valley of Texas, moved to Brazil in her late teens, and then to Mexico, New York, Oregon, Arizona, and Maine, before finally settling in Santa Fe. “I grew up at the mouth of the Rio Grande River in south Texas, and after taking some tributaries over the years, I’ve moved upstream from my childhood home.”

Irene Hardwicke Olivieri will be the featured artist of an exhibition from May 27 to July 23, 2022.

Opposite: Irene Hardwicke Olivieri in her studio, photo courtesy of the artist. Above right: Irene Hardwicke Olivieri, The Painter and Her Skeleton, oil on panel, 31” × 20”. Bottom right: Irene Hardwicke Olivieri, Disappearing by Nature, oil on panel, 30” × 43”.