Olivia Steele's works juxtapose some of today's most striking social ambiguities in the form they choose and the message they convey. Born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1985, Steele uses neon, video, and listed building facades to create her double entendres – based on select references that jar the viewer beyond the everyday. On a symbolic level, the results she produces are both iconic and personal. The reactions her works provoke are equally ambivalent: humorous and irritating. One thing they do not do, however, is leave the viewer indifferent – true to her belief that "CONTRAST IS THE GREATEST TEACHER."
By charging these famous facades with her independent commentary, she attempts to challenge viewers’ assumptions about modern culture and conventional semiotics. In dialog with public spaces, her more sentimental neon statements straddle the line between sincerity and sarcasm, often leaving her viewer intrigued.
