Novella Oliana (Trani, 1978) is a visual artist and researcher, lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. She has a background in cultural studies focused on the Mediterranean and the Middle East (University of Naples L'Orientale - Italy) and holds a practical-theoretical PhD in Visual Arts (Université Aix-Marseille - France), co-coordinated by Mario Cresci.

Her research-creation initially focused on the representation of the Mediterranean and its imagery, analysing the sea as a heterotopic and allegorical frontier. Her approach focuses today on the agentivity of objects and spaces, on the evolution of the photographic medium in contemporary culture, as well as on the use of archives/documents as an artistic practice. Anchored in the transdisciplinarity of thought, her works include gestures and speculative narratives as means of rethinking territories, transforming thought and ways of inhabiting the world, by cultivating a political and cultural approach to art.

Her work has been shown in several solo and group exhibitions, including Images Gibellina (2019); F4-Photo Open-Up festival (2020); Arcoscenico-Numero Cromatico (2020), double solo show with Mario Cresci (Red Lab Gallery, 2020). 

Her latest publications include "Chambres, universes: fragments d'un espace inventé", PU MIDI, Toulouse, 2018; "The Mediterranean surface and the archetype of the island as contemporary paradigms for accessing cultural commons", Springer-verlag, 2020.