Olivia De Berardinis

Who is Olivia De Berardinis?

Olivia De Berardinis, or simply Olivia is an American artist who mainly paints paintings of women, often referred to as pinup or cheesecake art. She has been working in this genre since the mid-1970s. Since 2004 Olivia has been a monthly contributor to Playboy magazine, where her art pinup page appears with captions written by Hugh Hefner.

Born in Long Beach, California, her childhood years were spent primarily on the East Coast. She attended the New York School of Visual Arts from 1967 to 1970, and resided in Soho, N.Y.C., from 1970 to 1974, creating Minimalist paintings. De Berardinis was one of the new artists introduced in the Second Annual Contemporary Reflections 1972-73, of the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Ridgefield, Connecticut. She also presented as one of 18 new artists in the "Tenth Anniversary, the Larry Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art 1964-74" with established artists including Eva Hesse, Agnes Martin, and Frank Stella. By 1975. financial pressures forced De Berardinis to seek out commercial art work. She returned to the skills she had gained as a child, painting women. She did work for periodicals and paperback publishers, advertisements, and movie posters. Olivia quickly secured regular work, starting in 1974, painting erotic fantasies for men's magazines."Necessity shaped my career, I thought illustrating for sex magazines might be a fun temporary job until my 'real' career started. In the back of my mind I believed I would go back to the fine arts. It wasn't clear to me then, but this work became my art."