Olivia Andrews (b. 2002) is a curator, artist, and researcher based in London, UK. Born in the U.S. to a Ugandan mother and Cape Verdean-American father, themes of roots, relationships, and nature are central to her practice.​​​​​​​​​​​​​

 

Her first installation, In the Soil Lies the Stories of the Land, laid the foundation for a practice grounded in conversation-based research and the germination that comes from exchanging stories. Her curatorial approach prioritizes the creation of warm, accessible spaces for reflection in natural or community-centered environments. As this project was based in a small town in Massachusetts, it led her to continue a practice that introduces global concepts into focused, community-based spaces – seeking to gently open a portal between the local and the global. Rather than imposing new ways of thinking, she invites communities into dialogue through methods that resist pressure, persuasion, or elitism – favoring instead a slow, respectful unfolding of ideas.

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As her curiosities and imagination tend to lead her far from home, her work is informed by a migratory sensibility: the mixing of soils from different lands, peering into the unfamiliar, and the instincts that surface during moments of dislocation.

 

Andrews earned a BA in Art History and Film from Wesleyan University (U.S.), where she received the Alumni Prize in Art History and graduated with high honors for her thesis 21st Century Cape Verdean Visual Culture: Grappling with the Local and Global in Postcolonial Cape Verde. She has recently completed a Master’s in Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art in London.