Latest Shape collaboration: Oriele was most recently commissioned for a series of new works for the Shape Open 2021. Oriele was also commissioned for Shape's 'Cards for Connection' project in January 2021.

Artist Statement: Oriele’s practice explores a variety of painting techniques and processes, using colour and light as primary modes of experimentation. She is interested in a palette’s ability to evoke emotion, whether through direct, singular use or via juxtaposition and dissonance. 

Her compositions depict vivid dreamscapes and the figures within create a sense of eeriness. The figures themselves often make their way into her direct environment via found photography, imagination, and drawings. 

Organic forms taken from this imagery transform themselves into a range of motifs which dominate her work. These motifs are her way of building up a relationship with the imagery and Oriele continually builds upon this visual alphabet through uninhibited, free-associative drawing and painting. This results in a childlike quality that represents immediate, impulsive thoughts.

In her most recent body of work, ‘My mouth is bored,’ Oriele explores her relationship with food using humour and personal experiences - something artists have done  at various points in history. In his painting ‘The Ricotta Eaters,' Vincenzi Campi paints himself as an over-indulging peasant. The humorous composition and figuration of him and his fellow diners is intended to confront all kinds of questions and taboos around the position of food in society, class, and culture at the time. These dichotomies - of capitalism, personal health, and addiction fascinate Oriele, as seen in her recent painting ‘A balanced Diet’ where she investigates her own relationship with these contradictions through the use of humorous, sarcastic imagery. 

Oriele in her studio.

Check out Oriele Steiner's website     See all the artists we work with

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Banner image: close-ups from Oriele's works, 'The best meal of the week,' 'What's your flavour,' and 'Snacking alone,' all 2020 and available as part of Cards for Connection.