Olivia de Berardinis

Olivia de Berardinis is a painter who specializes in pin-up and erotic art. She was born in 1948 in Long Beach, California and spent most of her childhood on the East Coast. Her father Sante was a freelance aeronautical engineer while her mother Connie served as both a muse and a model for Olivia in her early formative years as an artist. de Berardinis moved to New York City in the mid-1960's and attended the School of Visual Arts. Moreover, Olivia was involved with the 1960's New York minimalist art movement. de Berardinis initially worked as a waitress before her art career took off. She started out doing erotic art for paperbacks and fantasy periodicals. Olivia met her future husband and manager Joel Beren in 1975. The couple started the greeting card business O Cards in 1977 and got married in 1979. Moreover, the pair also founded the company Ozone Productions Ltd., which licenses Olivia's work. de Berardinis first displayed her artwork at the Erotics Gallery in New York in 1982; she has gone on to do fourteen one woman shows at their galleries. In 1993 Olivia and Joel published "Let Them Eat Cheesecake," which is the first of five books the couple has printed showcasing Olivia's work. More recent exhibitions of Olivia's work are the Cheesecake show at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, California in 2008 and another show at the WOW gallery in Hollywood, California in 2009. In addition, Olivia's work has been displayed in galleries in both Tokyo, Japan and San Francisco, California. Olivia contributes artwork to "Playboy" magazine on a monthly basis and resides in Malibu, California.