Oh de Laval, who captures the absurd elements of human interaction in her striking paintings, tells British Vogue how Gucci’s Epilogue collection piqued her curious mind and appealed to her Italian-inspired style.
Oh de Laval’s surrealist paintings have been a welcome tonic during lockdown. The Polish-Thai artist, whose real name is Olga Pothipirom, muses on the social interactions of people – many of them saucy – on her colour-pop canvases with witty, titillating titles. “People are bored at home, so I’ve been trying to entertain them through my work,” she says of expanding her online community during the pandemic, which saw her uproot her London life and take shelter in a new home-studio in Manchester.
Team Gucci took note of Pothipirom’s ability to capture moments of pure hedonism when real fun experiences have been absent from our lives. The brand commissioned the creative, who originally studied industrial design in Warsaw before switching to sociology, to make two paintings depicting the G-Timeless watch within the Oh de Laval world. Delving into the Gucciverse was the perfect pastime for Pothipirom, who describes her personal style as elegant and Italian-inspired.
“I want to be a painter who dresses nicely,” asserts Pothipirom, who is pictured here in her workspace. “I don’t like being messy or having paint on my clothes and shoes. I like heels, two-pieces – but not trousers! – and chic, girly looks.” Alessandro Michele’s Gucci collections, in which he injects what Pothipirom calls “freshness” into classic silhouettes, appeal to the rising star of the art scene. “Alessandro makes fashion that you never thought Gucci would make,” she muses. “It’s a whole new idea of Gucci that never feels dated.”
