Artists Talk Spotlight featuring Olivia Kim | Why We Need Art, Diversity, & Culture June 8th

540 is thrilled to partner with Rochester Artist Collaborative for the inaugural “Artists Talk” Event

Saturday June 8th // 2pm-4pm
Douglass Auditorium at 36 King Street

About Olivia Kim

Olivia Kim is a figure sculptor based in Rochester, New York, USA. She specializes in the ever-changing architecture of human body language, capturing split-second moments in bronze and cast glass. Over the past decade she developed a new art technique involving the practice of world dances and physical training to understand the profound dynamics of movement. She graduated cum laude with Divisional Honors in Ceramic Sculpture from the School of Art and Design, New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University of Alfred, New York in 2001. In 2004 she completed four years of post-graduate studies, receiving her Certificate in Realist Figure Drawing and Sculpture, and Prize for Best Sculpture at the Florence Academy of Art in Florence, Italy. From 2005- 2010 she learned techniques in bronze casting in Carrara and Pietrasanta, Italy, and produced public and private commissions in sculpture and mural painting. In 2010 she moved back to Rochester, New York, continuing to make sculptures in cast glass, bronze and terracotta. Past projects are dancers from the Bessie Award and Tony Award-winning Garth Fagan Dance Company.

Most recently Olivia made 13 Bicentennial Frederick Douglass sculptures for the City of Rochester, NY and for Garth Fagan Dance with the help of over 150 community volunteers. More about the project can be found on the following website: www.douglasstour.com Olivia’s artwork is displayed publicly and privately in Europe, Australia and the USA. Alongside gallery and commission work, Olivia teaches classes in Anatomical Figure Sculpture to Medical Illustrators at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

What does diversity in the arts mean to you?

“I believe that diversity is integral to being human. We are not limited to how we are made or where we come from. We are constantly changing. The arts celebrate the scope of our being-ness, our perception of ourselves and the world around us. Just do you. You add to the spectrum of our world culture, which is ever-changing and beautiful in its complexity. When you do you, there comes a point when diversity doesn’t need to exist as a concept anymore. We are simply here, being ourselves!”