Ollie White: Something Borrowed
5th September, 2025 to 27th September, 2025
Haricot Gallery
2 Blackall Street
London,
EC2A 4AD
In his first solo exhibition, Something Borrowed, painter Ollie White explores memory, intimacy and identity through the quiet symbolism of shoes in boxes.
Ollie White, one of London’s most exciting up-and-coming painters, is delighted to unveil his debut solo exhibition, Something Borrowed, showing at Shoreditch’s Haricot Gallery from Friday 05 to Saturday 27 September.
The exhibition will feature works which explore the quiet, psychological space between object and meaning through the visual motif of shoes in boxes. Featuring 10 carefully curated works including The Party, The After Party, Soirée, and Mirage, the exhibition seeks to convey a layered investigation into themes of containment, memory, intimacy, and identity, all of which are explored through the seemingly simple and domestic motif of the shoe.
Courtesy of the artist and Haricot Gallery
Through Ollie’s work, he encourages the viewer to see the boxed shoes as more than just artefacts, inspiring them to explore the ways in which an object can begin to act like a body, and how the shoes can act as characters, people, or gestures in a scene. Through the portrayal of the shoes in a box, Ollie creates anthropomorphic tension, showing the box as not just a container for an inanimate object, but as a room or a frame for a living, breathing scene.
Courtesy of the artist and Haricot Gallery
Materiality plays a crucial role in the exhibition’s works, with the tissue paper that surrounds the shoes in their boxes creating a delicate terrain of folds and shadows that adds depth to the paintings.
The works are not designed to be seen as pure still life, rather they are emotive portraits which use pauses, silences, and moments of unspoken emotion, to encourage the viewer to delve deeper, exploring the connection between the human experience through the motif of a simple object. Through his work, Ollie hopes to portray care, memory, and the tension between absence and presence, inspiring viewers to draw deeper meaning and reflect on the emotional life of things.
Courtesy of the artist and Haricot Gallery
About Ollie White
Ollie White is a British painter who has exhibited in London, Milan, and Shanghai, with his Red Shoes in Box having been selected for the prestigious Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2024. He studied at the Royal College of Art in London, and graduated from the Master of Arts, Painting course in 2024, following time spent studying for his BA Fine Art degree at Goldsmiths, University of London. His first solo exhibition, Something Borrowed, will open at Haricot Gallery in Shoreditch from Friday 05 September.
Ollie White: Something Borrowed opens on the 5th of September, 2025 until the 27th of September, 2025 at Haricot Gallery
©2025 Haricot Gallery, Ollie White
Art Plugged is a contemporary platform inspired by a relationship with the broader arts communities. We provide our audience with curated insight into the world of art, from exhibitions to artist interviews and more.
