OLIVIA JIA – FAUN
2026-09-14The show takes its title from the flora and fauna that recur within the show: decorative vases and ceramics embellished with motifs from nature, lattice windows from Chinese Gardens, alongside ornaments in the form of animals or flowers.
Jia’s own identity as the child of Chinese immigrants to the United States deeply informs the work, blending images of traditional East Asian ephemera with historical artefacts sourced from Pennsylvania, the American state in which Jia was raised. She draws from museum archives, images found online, family photographs, combined with invented imagery based on memories and family stories to construct a personal history told through objects. Subject matter includes, among others: a painting by Raphaelle Peale (an important Philadelphia painter from the 1800s); Siebold’s magnolia (a flower native to East Asia); an 18th Century Chinese figure of a swallow; an 18th century Pennsylvanian-German tin lantern, a carved lacquer dish, and a silver snuff box shaped as a book, etched with flower motifs. Exhibited together, these images form a constellation where different paintings speak to one another and reflect how identity can be formed through objects and belongings that might otherwise seem at odds.
Opposite – Page unfolded (glazed porcelain bottle with motif of a deer, 16th century), 2026
Exhibition runs through till October 31st, 2026
The Approach
1st Floor, 47 Approach Road
Bethnal Green
E2 9LY
London
