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Olly Fathers is an artist based in Brixton, London. His work explores the relations between abstract shapes, different materials, and forms. Creating well finished, often playful pieces that encourage the viewer to take a closer look to understand the balance and precision involved. With a strict eye for detail, Fathers takes great satisfaction in the making process and this often becomes influential in the outcome of his work.

With a keen interest in woodwork, both as a skill and its use in Art and Design, Fathers has developed a desire to use wood in his practice and creates pieces using a range of different types and species. These works take inspiration from architecture, design, and culture including early computer technology and graphics. These pieces use incredibly intricately cut wood veneers brought together using self taught marquetry techniques. Fathers creates beautifully finished pieces, with contrasting natural and dyed coloured wood which causes the shapes to appear raised out the surface, in a Tromp L’oeil effect. Other works are more sculptural and the 3D elements allow the pieces to have more of a constructed and assembled quality.

His paintings were initially a simplified reference to observing the flow of public traffic in built up cities, using paint to replicate the movement of people navigating around buildings, pathways, roads, etc. These pieces have become more refined over the ten plus years he has been making them, and have now taken on their own cleaner, minimal language, yet still having the sense of familiarity with the city landscape.

Fathers also makes lots of works with paper, card, recycled cardboard, wood effect vinyl, and more. Many of these pieces are often seen as studies for larger works in the future, yet still all treated as vitally important, well finished pieces of their own.

His work has been collected worldwide and he is regularly exhibiting and working on commissions. Recently showing at Saatchi Gallery on multiple occasions and commissioned to make works for Soho House for their collections in London, Tel Aviv, Amsterdam, and Mumbai.