Artists make the world go round, and never cease to amaze us with their talent, tenacity, and tendency to know the future trends before we do. Class of The Future is a series of interviews with eight absolutely astronomical talents from Australia, who are the up-and-comers ready to change the game.
Olivia Serrao is a Bachelor of Design and Animation student from the University of Technology Sydney with a penchant for the dark and ominous, always incorporating a sneaking sense of shaded humour in each and every one of her artworks.
This jack of all trades, master of every single one, sits comfortably in the homes of every art style you can think of, sashaying from animation to illustration, and even dipping her toes in the lakes of oil painting. There really isn’t much that Serrao can’t do, which makes her the perfect candidate for our Class of the Future series.
“A lot of my stuff is pretty dark. I try to sneak in a few nice colourful ones but a lot of my stuff is dark, like I like dark humour and things of that nature. One of my tutors once wrote ‘you have a very dry sense of humour’ and I was just like ‘Yes! They get it! They get what I’m here for!'” she says in our interview.
With big dreams and ambitions of entering into the Archibald Prize, 23-year-old Olivia Serrao has her eyes on the prize, and is definitely one to watch over the coming years.
For the Class of the Future series, Serrao submitted her semi-realistic, wholly conceptual artwork of Billie Eilish, which stuns with its shades of bleak abstraction fused with hyperrealism.
You can check it out below.
It’s this kind of dark meets light chiaroscuro that simply enthrals anyone who witnesses it. But don’t be fooled, Serrao’s talents are not simply restricted to what you see before you. One look at her Instagram will leave you in a daze with the multiple talents that this young woman possesses.
Interview with Olivia Serrao
What art form do you specialise in?
I specialise more in 3D animation, but I like to do illustration, and before I started animation I did realistic portraits. So I’m kind of just a mixture of everything. That’s why when you go to my Instagram you go ‘what is this?’ It’s literally anything.
So you’re like a jack of all trades?
Yeah, it’s very random. But I do want to do 3D more, with illustration and portraits on the side. I want to do the Archibald, so hopefully in the future, but oil painting is very difficult. I’ve been wanting to do it for the last five years, but I feel like now is the time.
What has driven you to do art?
I feel like art has always been apart of me. I’m the person that gets bored doing one thing. I knew I was good at realistic art, but I kind of got bored with it. I then knew I wanted to do film and animation, every film I saw I was just like, damn I want to be apart of that. That’s why I do what I do, I want to keep going with my skills and hopefully one day land a job.
So what is your dream job?
Pixar. Or Disney. They’re definitely my go-to’s.
Have you ever used your artwork to make some sort of message?
I follow Jamil from The Good Place, so a lot of the work I’ve done recently has been reflective of her messages. I did a recent artwork which was just all different types of women. Sometimes I put messages in my work, I’m getting there.
The Class of the Future, Sydney’s rising artists you need to keep an eye on.
Top Row left to right: Erin Sutherland, Sara Hirner, Jimmy Nevell, Nancy Li.
Bot Row left to right: Olivia Serrao, Rosemary Vasquez Brown, Connor Xia.
(*missing from group photo: Anne-Simone El Sokkary)
