Oliver Osborne (Edinburgh, 1985) holds a BA in Fine Art (2008) from Chelsea College of Art and a postgraduate diploma (2011) from the Royal Academy Schools, London. His work merges abstraction, figuration, and appropriation, utilizing a diverse visual language that includes silk-screens of cartoons, pages from language textbooks, monochrome canvases, embroidery, and precisely executed paintings. By navigating the intersection between figuration and abstraction, Osborne challenges traditional distinctions between the two and explores the evolving potential of painting within contemporary art.

A key element of his practice is repetition—both compositional and thematic—through which he excavates new images from sustained, often art-historical fixations. This process, combined with his use of chiaroscuro and shifts in composition, allows him to test the malleability of painting over time. His subjects range from appropriated figures of portraiture to his own family, reinforcing the personal dimension of his work. Spanning techniques such as silk-screen, monochromatic abstraction, and photorealistic oil painting, his practice remains fluid rather than constrained. Even when revisiting a singular subject multiple times, each rendition emerges distinct.

Selected solo exhibitions include "Ooh!", Union Pacific, London (upcoming, 2025); Francis Irv, New York (upcoming, 2025); Fondazione ICA Milano (upcoming, 2025); "Botticelli", Tanya Leighton Gallery, Berlin (2024); "Manganese Blue", Galeria Pelaires, Palma de Mallorca (2023); "Recent Painting", Tanya Leighton, Los Angeles (2023); "Mantegna's Dead Christ", Union Pacific, London (2022); "Portrait of a Fat Man" for Düsseldorf, JVDW, Düsseldorf (2022); "Portrait of a Fat Man", Galeria Pelaires, Palma de Mallorca (2021); "Der Kleine Angsthase", Braunsfelder, Cologne (2020); "Birth, Education, Leisure, Death", Giò Marconi, Milan (2019); and "Bonnie", Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn (2018). He has also presented solo and two-person exhibitions at Moran Moran, Los Angeles (with Peles Empire) (2018); Peles Empire, Berlin (2016); Vilma Gold, London (2016, 2013); Catherine Bastide, Brussels (2015); Isbrytaren/Carl Kostyál, Stockholm (2015); and Frutta, Rome (2013).

Selected group exhibitions include "Oliver Osborne & Shimon Minamikawa", Seishodo THE ROOM, Kyoto (2024); "I Would Not Think To Touch The Sky With Two Arms", Paulina Caspari Gallery, Munich (2024); "Meet me by the lake", CLEARING, New York (2024); "Various Others", Paulina Caspari Gallery, Munich (2024); "A GENTLE CRUISE", JVDW, Düsseldorf (2024); "Nine Oils", Francis Irv, New York (2024); "Day by Day, Good Day", Union Pacific, London (2022); "Triple Burner", Union Pacific, London (2021); "HEART–100 artists, 1 mission", Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg (2020); "Editions", Peles Empire, Berlin (2019); "The Go Between", Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, and Sprovieri, Italy (2014), amongst others.

Portrait by Oliver Osborne at Galeria Pelaires, April 2021. Image by Grimalt de Blanch, courtesy of the artist and Galeria Pelaires.