Oli Mumby is a contemporary artist who looks for, and represents, beauty found in unlikely and untraditional contexts. Oli Mumby’s art represents landscapes through multimedia, most recently taking the form of collage and paper cut-outs. Mumby pays attention to subjects that often go unnoticed in our everyday lives.
Oli Mumby is a contemporary artist who looks for, and represents, beauty found in unlikely and untraditional contexts. Oli Mumby’s art represents landscapes through multimedia, most recently taking the form of collage and paper cut-outs. Mumby pays attention to subjects that often go unnoticed in our everyday lives.
Previously an advertising creative based in London, Mumby was drawn to the landscape and setting of Derbyshire and the Peaks, where he now resides. It is clear to see how his background informs his clean, graphic aesthetic. The artist draws upon this rural landscape, captivated by the colour and form he sees in his surroundings and highlighting the unique patterns and details of nature, moving beyond a purely aesthetic level. The artist wants viewers to look, and really see, provoking questions about what we accept as the norm. In a move away from realism, Mumby combines collage, paper cut-outs, and mixed media, allowing his works to be more stylistic and expressive. Mumby’s works are ‘about’ places, rather than ‘of’ them, allowing the viewer to project a narrative onto them. Mumby begins his creative process with an idea based on drawings or photographs, predominantly in pastel, embracing the medium’s directness and physicality. He then proceeds to collaborate with the other added elements, allowing for compositions and ideas to emerge naturally. Whilst Mumby’s pieces always begin as observations, once completed, they have a semi-abstract aesthetic.
“How often do we look at filling stations, industrial buildings or road markings and see something more interesting?”
We love the bold cut-outs and intricacy of Mumby’s artworks.
As a child growing up in the suburbs of Manchester, Mumby dreamt of being a pig farmer in France.
"A calming and atmospheric interpretation of the landscape, my figurative work often has a semi-abstract aesthetic which can be open to individual interpretation."
Mumby finds inspiration in the natural world, medieval tapestries, other artists and designers, and his children's drawings.
