Lot 1 , Olga Geoghegan, (b.1965), Me, My Mother, Sister and Grandmother, 2015, oil on canvas, 100 x 70 cm

Olga Geoghegan
(b.1965)
Me, My Mother, Sister and Grandmother, 2015
oil on canvas
100 x 70 cm
£3,000-4,000
Olga Geoghegan’s haunting and enigmatic oil paintings often begin with memories of her early childhood in the north of the then Soviet Union. These were the scenes and characters that she carried with her when, aged ten, she left the town of Ukhta behind and travelled a thousand miles to take up a place at the Leningrad Academy of Art’s special art school. She later also graduated from the St Petersburg Academy of Art, founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great.

One of her graduation projects was a design for Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. She also worked for a time at the Mariinsky (formerly Kirov) Opera and Ballet Theatre – so Barefoot Opera’s mission is especially close to her heart.

In the early 1990s, Geoghegan was one of the first Russian painters to be invited to exhibit in Western Europe, with exhibitions in London and Vienna. She has since moved to London, where she has had many exhibitions (including at the Royal Drawing School and Messum’s), as well as shows in Scotland, Switzerland, Spain, USA and Russia