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Olivia Musgrave FRSS

About

Olivia Musgrave was born in Dublin in 1958. Her father was Anglo-Irish and her mother Greek. She was educated at home until the age of 10 and then attended a Quaker boarding school in Co. Waterford. After school she set off to Europe to study (political science in Paris), to work (a tour company in Italy) and to explore her origins in Greece. Wanderlust satisfied, she came to London in 1983 after an inspirational period in Athens, to study sculpture at the City & Guilds of London Art School in Kennington. 

At that time there was a largely figurative tradition under Allan Sky in the sculpture department and a very vibrant environment generally with the President of the Royal Academy, the late Roger de Grey, at the helm. Olivia spent three absorbing years at the college and left with many of the basic skills she required to embark on a life making sculpture. During that period City & Guilds was a place where the sculpture students learned how to make moulds, cast in bronze, study the figure and to draw from life.

This might seem a somewhat limited approach to making sculpture; in fact there was a very open atmosphere and each student was encouraged to bring his or her own ideas to any given discipline. As a result a wide variety of work, both figurative and abstract, was produced. After college Olivia was offered several commissions and found a studio large enough to stage small solo exhibitions. This enabled her to gradually build up a body of work and contacts amongst galleries in London and Dublin.

She is now a member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors and the President and fellow of The Society of Portrait Sculptors. She Exhibits at the John Martin Gallery in London, at the Royal Hibernian Academy and at Everard Read Gallery in Johannesburg, South Africa. In 2004 she married John Gardiner and is currently living and working in London.

Profile 

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BORN

1958

EDUCATION

City & Guilds of London Art School, Kennington

 

STUDIO

London

 

MATERIALS

Bronze

COMMISSIONS & AWARDS/PRIZES

The Fedora Gleichen Award - Royal British Society of Sculptors

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

  • Boots Plc

  • Oxford University

  • National Bank of Greece

  • The National Self Portrait Collection of Ireland

  • University of Limerick

  • Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind

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