About

David Olivant was born in 1958 and grew up in Watford, a non-descript town on the northwest edge of London. He was awarded a BA in Art from the Falmouth School of Art in England in 1980 after which he studied for three years at the Royal College of Art in London where he received an MA in Painting in 1984. Following graduation he was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship to work in India. He lived in New Delhi for three years in the late 1980’s. After a brief return to England and a short residence in Stockholm, he met his wife Katie in Denmark and moved to Kansas City, her home town in the United States. A notable moment in Olivant's career is when he had a solo show in 1990 at the Center for International Contemporary Art in NYC, just a stone’s throw from MOMA. He was favorably full-page reviewed by Kay Larsson in New York Magazine which led to his ultimately being approached by Stephen Solovy in Chicago. Olivant has periodically contributed reviews to Art Critical, Art Ltd and Square Cylinder. His first teaching position was at Southwest Texas State University in 1992, after which he accepted a post at California State University of Stanislaus in 1995, where he taught for 25 years before retiring in 2020 and moving to Santa Fe, New Mexico. In addition, he was an artist member of Amos Eno Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. David’s work has undergone many changes of style, medium, and intention during a thirty-six year career as an artist. These incarnations of his restless spirit ultimately share with Vedanta philosophy the attempt to seek the very thing that is doing the seeking.