Sister Monica Jones

Sister Monica Jones
Olivia Sterling
Acrylic and pencil on paper
37 x 25 cm 
2025

Olivia Sterling (b. 1996) lives and works in London. In her paintings, Sterling presents the viewer with scenes of daily life that subtly critique attitudes towards race, class, gender and social status. While her typically closely cropped and vividly coloured canvases – teeming with arms, legs and half-eaten food – may seem playful at first sight, they do in fact tackle subjects that are anything but. In this way, Sterling’s artworks can be seen as contemporary genre paintings, designed to make us reflect upon the world around us. Through her work’s outwardly jovial exterior, Sterling lulls us into a false sense of security and forces us to consider our own misconceptions and prejudices.

Sterling was recently included in the exhibition Conversations at Walker Art Gallery (Liverpool, 2024–25), a show featuring work by around 40 leading Black women and non-binary artists. Her debut institutional solo exhibition Episodes took place at CCA Goldsmiths in London in 2021, and notable group shows include I’m Not Afraid of Ghosts at Palazzo Tiepolo Passi (Venice, 2024) and Beano: The Art of Breaking the Rules at Somerset House (London, 2021). Her first solo show with Meyer Riegger was held in Berlin in 2022 and a second solo exhibition with the gallery took place in Basel in 2024.