CULTURE
Culture (bits)
UP CLOSE & Personal
ARTIST LOIE HOLLOWELL EMOTES HER INTIMATE MOMENTS IN THE ABSTRACT Loie Hollowell credits her instinct to explore radical matter in her artwork to her mother. “She was very open with talking about her body and teaching us about sex and being strong, independent women,” the artist muses, thinking back on her childhood in a simple converted barn nestled just outside of Woodland, Calif. Once Hollowell started having relationships of her own, sexuality infused her work—early paintings were figurative; she calls them “didactic” images of sexual acts. Then, a few years ago, Hollowell found out she was pregnant, and decided she did not want to have a child with her then-partner. The fallout for both parties changed something at her source. “I didn’t realize how emotional it would be and I started trying to paint the sensations in my body and my mind. That’s when the abstractions started happening.” C 152 SEPTEMBER 2017
Hollowell’s often symmetrical, sculptural paintings originate from moments of intimacy that she represents through abstracted shapes, then pares down and grounds with a horizon or a sight line until the work becomes universal— suddenly a narrative emerges from the colors she’s used and the textures generated from paints she’s layered. Critics have commented that her work draws from American modernist painters, second-wave feminist art and neo-tantric artists. Pace Gallery owner Marc Glimcher spotted Hollowell’s work last year in Marfa, Texas, at a group show that paired artwork and film from the 1930s and ’40s with contemporary artists exploring concepts such as the sublime and the body. After nearly a year of wooing, he brought the 34-year-old artist on board. For “Point of Entry,” her first exhibition at the gallery’s Palo Alto outpost, Hollowell has
created what she calls sister or sibling paintings. Each painting has another painting that is exactly its opposite, both in color and space: convex becomes concave, background becomes foreground. “It was a way for me to slow down,” she says, “and create a painting that could be almost the same but have a totally different viewing experience.” The results are moving and grounded in a subject matter that’s particularly pertinent. It isn’t a new thing to be so upfront about sexuality, Hollowell notes, citing contemporary figures such as Amy Schumer alongside icons like Judy Chicago and Georgia O’Keeffe. For her, though, the trick is to keep the art coming from her individual experience and not a larger political gesture. “The strongest critiques are the most personal ones,” she says. Sept. 20-Nov. 2. Pace Palo Alto, 229 Hamilton Ave., Palo Alto, 650-561-4076; pacegallery.com. •
LOIE HOLLOWELL: PHOTOGRAPHED BY KERRY RYAN McFATE, COURTESY OF PACE GALLERY. PAINTINGS: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND PACE GALLERY.
Clockwise from left: Artist LOIE HOLLOWELL. Point of Entry Purple Moon over Green Sac, 2017. Point of Entry - Lingam between Red Circles, 2017.