About Rachel Olivia
Rachel Olivia Berg (of Mnicoujou Lakota, Mexican, and German lineages) works in diverse media as an artist, art advisor, and the founder of LivArtfully Design Studio. She holds a BA from Princeton University and a MA in Art Education from Columbia University Teachers College. Since 2004 she has designed, developed, and created custom large scale commissions in commercial projects across Turtle Island, working with top art consultant and interior design firms. She is a 2023 Emerging Artist Fellow with the Ann Street Gallery in Newburgh, NY and is currently broadening her studio practice to more research based methodologies and practices that explore Indigenous ontologies and histories, connections in cultural relationships to nature and ecological activism.
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Her work is held in corporate art collections including Virgin Hotels, Mountain Shadows Resorts, Spotify, Kimpton Hotels, Jane Street; As well as the notable health care spaces Cohen’s Children’s Hospital, NY and Oyate Health Center for Indian Health Services in Rapid City, SD. She is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.
Artist Statement
My art practice is rooted in observation of the natural world and Indigenous values. I explore materials to create artworks in diverse artistic mediums that express Lakota ontologies, question human connection within ecosystems, and investigate natural cycles.
I work with paint, wood, plaster, fabric, cyanotype, ink, and found objects to represent variations of imagery including Lakota symbols, mirrored forms, organic forms, landscapes, sky-scapes, constellations, plants, stones, and water. These natural elements embody the teachings of our ancestors and carry with them knowledge, truths, and realities both within and outside of contemporary western methodologies. My art process aims to both focus and expand the intersections between nature and personal “ways of being” addressing multiplicity of human cultures and practices and how they relate to our non-human relatives. I wish to create space to reflect upon and learn about the universal mystery of life, death, and connections to Mitakyue Oyasin (All My Relations).
Create with Me
LivArtfully Studio
Greenwood Lake, NY and Lead, SD
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E-Mail: rachelbergstudio@gmail.com
Tel: 917-923-2682