Oh De Laval

b. 1990

Oh de Laval is the sobriquet of Olga Pothipirom, an artist of half Polish, Half Thai descent . Oh's work is concerned with human behaviour: the decisions we make, why we make them and how we feel as a result. These decisions are windows into our very personalities. Polish-Thai artist Oh de Laval’s vibrant, faux-naïf figurative paintings are beautiful yet macabre, unsettling yet humorous, and deviant yet honest. Among the varied inspirations for her work are industrial design (which she studied for two years), Francis Bacon’s hedonistic lifestyle, and sociologist Emile Durkheim’s theory that deviance is an integral part of society. Her characters reside within lush landscapes and interiors reminiscent of a Rococo-esque frivolity, yet the women are often bare-chested, painted in garish pinks and reds, and the men have sardonic grins plastered onto their melting faces. Paintings that may appear romantic from afar take on an unsettling or playful edge as she explores 21st-century eroticism. "The eroticism in my paintings is as much about sexual desire as lust, wrath, violence, despair, and happiness," the artist has said.