Olivia Minshall


Master of Fine Arts in Studio, Painting and Drawing

Olivia Minshall is a Chicago-born artist known for her satirical and emotionally provocative artwork. Minshall develops her paintings through expressive mark-making and bold use of language. She explores the tangibility of female rage, challenging cultural expectations of femininity, authority, the ego, and consumption. Autobiographical and confessional, her work grapples with the relationship between the body and various forms of violation. For Minshall, self-deprecation and overt sarcasm are used as a vehicle to discuss and confront these topics. Minshall’s work weaves a fine line between humor and pain.

Minshall completed her BA at the University of Oregon in 2016, studying Digital Arts and Comparative Literature. She began painting in her final year of college. In 2016, her work was published on the cover of NOMAD, a literary publication by the University of Oregon. In 2019, she had her first solo show in Pilsen (Chicago), Floppy. Minshall began her Post-Baccalaureate degree at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2019. In 2020, she was a featured artist published by Limbo+Hatch, London. Minshall is currently at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the MFA program for Painting and Drawing.