LILY HOLLINDEN
Funny Because It’s True
January 20 - March 4, 2023
Bruno David Gallery
7513 Forsyth Boulevard
Saint Louis, Missouri 63105, U.S.A.
info@brunodavidgallery.com
www.brunodavidgallery.com
Founder/Director: Bruno L. David
This catalogue was published in conjunction with the online exhibition
“
Funny Because It’s True” at Bruno David Gallery.
Editor: Bruno L. David
Catalogue Designer: Jenny Rong
Designer Assistant: Claudia R. David
Printed in USA
All works courtesy of Lily Hollinden and Bruno David Gallery
Photographs by Bruno David Gallery
Cover image:
Creation Stories, 2022
Oil on canvas
32 x 40 inches (81.3 x 101.6 cm.)
I am pleased to present, Funny Because It’s True an exhibition by multi disciplinary artist Li ly Hollinden.
Throughout the course of this body of work, Lily Hollinden engages in concepts surrounding the origins of life and humanity and strives to analyze the human experience from an animal lens. The underwater world, the birthplace of organic life and home to species that remain unchanged for millennia, serves as an overarching motif in her work, referencing an enduring permanence of living things. Alongside this aquatic imagery, Hollinden uses the human form, usually her own, to express the rapidly evolving and diverse experience of humanity. She is interested in exploring the micro, in the form of the nuances of her own life, an individual organism among billions, and the macro, the lineage of mankind, and even the creatures that preceded us. Hollinden aims to draw connections between herself and her family, her lineage as a painter, her species, and this planet. How does the existence of one person, one human, fit into the vast and never-ending puzzle of life on our planet? What role does instinct, hard-wired into the human brain over the process of our evolution as animals, play in a post-survival world? Where does it help us, and where does it hinder us?
More recently in her studio practice, Hollinden has been specifically exploring the idea of humor being an integral part of the human experience. Her research includes different clowning cultures and practices, and the societal role of the comedian, particularly in the form of a protected class of truth-tellers. Through their comedy, a court jester could speak freely, and provide more brutal critique of those in power without consequences; this is known as the “Jester’s Privilege”. This concept of finding authenticity in the roundabout form of humor, sarcasm, and irony, has become a recurring theme in Hollinden’s paintings as she references the low-brow art movement and “chronically online” communities of the internet. Hollinden’s work aims to find balance in extremes; the individual and the universal, current and ancient, comedy and tragedy, the learned and the instinctual, ridiculousness and sincerity. Through the creation of her paintings, she philosophizes about evolutionary psychology, human nature, and vestigial traits that we exhibit. Her studio practice facilitates a cyclical understanding of herself through exploring these concepts in her paintings. After all, there is truth in jest.
Support for the creation of significant new works of art has been the core to the mission and program of the Bruno David Gallery since its founding in 2005. I am deeply grateful to Jenny Rong, who gave much time, talent, and expertise to the production of this catalogue. Invaluable gallery staff support for the exhibition was provided by Taylor Anderson, Jacob Hughes, Beth McDonald, Jada Ivy, Benjamin Levine, David Luo, and Sammy Wood.
Open the Floodgates 2021
Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 × 50.8 cm)
Jokerbrained & Blackpilled 2022
Oil on canvas 24 x 28 inches (61 × 71.1 cm)
Hiding Places
I don’t bite, I Promise!
2021
LILY HOLLINDEN
Lives and works in Bloomington, IN
EDUCATION
2019 Painting BFA, Art History Minor, Indiana University Bloomington / Bloomington, IN
2024 Painting MFA, University of Arkansas / Fayetteville, AR
EXHIBITIONS
2023 “Funny Because It’s True”, Solo Exhibition, Bruno David Gallery / St Louis, MO
“Natural Beings”, Group Exhibition, MIXD Gallery/ Rogers, AR
“429: Painting + Drawing MFA Exhibition”, Group Exhibition, sUgAR Gallery / Fayetteville, AR
“Blue: A Color Story”, Group Exhibition, MIXD Gallery / Rogers, AR
“By Design”, Group Exhibition, MIXD Gallery/ Rogers, AR
“Magic Circus”, Group Exhibition, Fenix Gallery / Fayetteville, AR
2022 “Merging Spaces” Group Exhibition, MIXD Gallery / Rogers, AR
2021
“Shaping Time Into Something Other Than Itself” Group Exhibition, Fayetteville Public Library / Fayetteville, AR
“BILINGUAL: ABSTRACT & FIGURATIVE” Group Exhibition, Bruno David Gallery / St Louis, MO
2020 “Behind Our Masks” Group Exhibition, Bruno David Gallery / St Louis, MO
2018
Pygmalion’s Custom Color Show / Bloomington, IN
“Abyssal Flood” BFA Thesis Show, Grunwald Gallery / Bloomington, IN
2017 BFA Undergraduate Show, Grunwald Gallery / Bloomington, IN
“I’ll Be Your Mirror”, Fuller Projects / Bloomington, IN
Pygmalion’s Custom Color Show / Bloomington, IN
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ARTISTS
Antonio Ainscough
Sara Ghazi Asadollahi
Barry Anderson
Laura Beard
Heather Bennett
Lisa K. Blatt
Michael Byron
Ben Brough
Quinn A. Briceno
Bunny Burson
Lisa Bulawsky
Judy Child
Carmon Colangelo
William Conger
Alex Couwenberg
Terry James Conrad
Jill Downen
Damon Freed
Yvette Drury Dubinsky
Douglass Freed
Adrian Gonzalez
Richard Hull
Mee Jey
Kelley Johnson
Chris Kahler
Leslie Laskey
Justin Henry Miller
James Austin Murray
William Morris
Arny Nadler
Yvonne Osei
Patricia Olynyk
Charles P. Reay
Daniel Raedeke
Tom Reed
Frank Schwaiger
Eric Minh Swenson
Char Schwall
Christina Shmigel
Thomas Sleet
Buzz Spector
Andrea Stanilav
Cindy Tower
Mario Trejo