Since I first saw Olivia Hill’s solo exhibition “Strike-Slip” at Bel Ami, I’ve found myself returning to one work in particular—one of the smallest in the show, a sunset-hued rendering of sandy terrain. Entitled Tire Mark in Yucca Valley 34°12’27.9″N 116°26’17.2″W (2022), this purple-flecked painting is emblematic of the elusive allure underlying Hill’s work, illustrating how an uncanny creation can come from human interference in nature.

Olivia Hill, Tire Mark in Yucca Valley 34°12’27.9″N 116°26’17.2″W, 2022. Photo by Evan Bedford. Image courtesy of the artist and Bel Ami, Los Angeles.

Working from her own photos and stills from Google Earth, Hill’s landscapes imply an indexicality that, on closer inspection, is fabrication. Arriving home after Hill’s opening I typed the coordinates listed in the title into Google Earth and found my screen honing in on a beige patch in the Yucca Valley. From afar, the aerial image presents a clear, purportedly exact view of the expansive desert with the grid-style roads that occasionally cut through. But as I zoomed in the details began to fade, giving way to a loosely muddled landscape where the “grid-style roads” are nothing more than the haphazard treads of bygone cars. I tried to zoom in as close as I could to recreate what Hill saw, but at this proximity the terrain below my cursor was a blur and the sparse shrubbery and horizon line little more than pixelated blobs. Though Hill cites a specific place when painting her landscapes, it is clear the referent is not exact. Her beautiful landscapes are an amalgamation of fact and fabrication.

Olivia Hill, Cave Painting, Bronson Caves 34°07’17.4″N 118°18’51.9″W, 2022. Photo by Evan Bedford. Image courtesy of the artist and Bel Ami, Los Angeles.

The combination of reality and imagination at play in Hill’s paintings are a nod to the surreal landscape that is greater Los Angeles. As a city memorialized through Hollywood, images have become ingrained in our collective memory so thoroughly that the cityscape can be called to the mind even by those who have never been. Hill’s exhibition points out both the underlying artifice of these immortal images, such as her piece Cave Painting, Bronson Caves 34°07’17.4″N 118°18’51.9″W. Without looking at the title, it would be easy to read this painting as a classic, somewhat impressionist-style painting of a foreboding cliff face and cave entrance. However, the title reveals that this cave is neither mundane nor natural but made by men blasting their way through the canyons of Los Angeles to create a set for Hollywood Westerns and the infamous entrance to Batman’s cave in the 1960s show. Stylistically, Hill mirrors the illusion of the Los Angeles landscape by mixing materials and brush strokes, creating a piece that, from afar, appears cohesive, yet—like the Google sources she references—come apart when seen up close, leaving your eyes to fill in the details.

Hill is an undeniably talented painter and one whose work I look forward to watching progress. An exemplary exhibition, the uncanny landscapes of “Strike-Slip” linger in you long after you’ve seen them, seeping into your own memory of Los Angeles.

Olivia Hil
Strike-Slip
Bel Ami, Los Angeles
July 23 – September 17, 2022
belami.info