Holly Trostle Brigham March 12th – April 6th, 2019
Publication by:
101 Stone Block Row, Breck’s Mill, 2nd Floor, Greenville, DE 19807 (302) 652-‐0271 info@somervillemanning.com
Self-‐Identification has risen to the forefront of contemporary culture in the twenty-‐first century, with the expansion of gay marriage, advocacy for equal opportunities and increased recognition for LGBTQIA communities, as well as a resurgence in feminist concerns. Additionally, a trend of self-‐focus is manifest in the ubiquitous “Selfies” on social media that have launched an industry of selfie-‐sticks, related accessories, and cell phone apps. Painter Holly Brigham provocatively explores the complex constructs of contemporary identity using the visual trope of the self-‐portrait. Her “subjects” range from the mythical figures of Cybele and Isis (the Roman goddess of fertility and Egyptian goddess of regeneration), to historical individuals, including ground-‐breaking fine artists such as Edmonia Lewis and Frida Kahlo, pioneering members of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs), as well as lesser known women who were social, religious, and literary leaders of their day. Through these homages to strong female figures, Brigham reveals her fascination with artistic precedent and identity, morality, piety, gender, stereotype, and perseverance. By inserting her own visage and occasionally her forthright nude body in her portrayals—inhabiting the accomplished personalities she seeks to convey—Brigham inspires the viewer to consider the question of self-‐hood and legacy more broadly and underscores the important role of “sisterhood” to the advancement of humankind. Shelley R. Langdale The Park Family Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings, Philadelphia Museum of Art January 2019
Andrea Maria de la Encarnacion | watercolor | 29 ½ x 29 ½ inches She is the daughter of the Spanish sculptor Pedro de Mena (1628-1688). Andrea Maria and her sister Claudia were both artists and members of the Cistercian order and they entered the convent together in 1671 in Malaga, Spain. A number of the sculptures attributed to the father are in fact by Andrea Maria.
Cybele on Her Birthing Throne | watercolor | 60 x 40 inches In Greek and Roman mythology, Cybele personified Mother Earth and was worshiped as the Great Mother of the Gods. She was also associated with forests, mountains, and nature.
Edmonia and Cleopatra | watercolor | 29 ½ x 29 ½ inches Mary Edmonia Lewis (c. 1844 –1907) was the first woman of African American and Native American heritage to achieve international fame and recognition as a sculptor. Her sculpture “The Death of Cleopatra,” represented here, was exhibited at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876.
Family Totem | watercolor | 87 x 48 inches
Freeing the Frieda in Me | watercolor | 29 ½ x 29 ½ inches Considered one of Mexico’s greatest artists, Frida Kahlo (1907-‐1954) employed a naïve folk art style to explore questions of identity, post colonialism, gender, class and race in Mexican society.
Hilaria Batista de Almeida | watercolor | 29 ½ x 29 ½ inches Hilária Batista de Almeida (1854-‐1924) is considered the matriarch of Brazilian samba and it’s reference within the Candomblé religion practice. She was part of the order of the Sisterhood of the Good Death and is represented as one of the leaders, The Provider.
Hildegard’s Box | oil, watercolor, wax, metal, light and music | 21 ½ x 21 ½ x 44 inches Hildegard of Bingen (1098-‐1179) was a German Benedictine abbess and mystic, who wrote about scientific natural history, composed music, wrote plays and directed the painting of illuminated manuscripts in her abbey. This contemporary relic box holds her tongue and heart in jeweled bags and plays her medieval music. The sides and back tell stories of her life.
Isis: Regeneration | oil on panel | 47 ½ x 38 ½ inches Isis was the ancient Egyptian goddess of marriage, fertility, motherhood, magic and medicine. She was considered the mother of every pharaoh through the king's association with Horus, Isis' son.
Little Blue Nun | watercolor, collaged paper | 12 x 12 inches
Luna | ink and watercolor on gessoed paper | 39 x 27 ½ inches
Mother Monument | sculptural artist book | Edition of 10 Sculptural artist book celebrating famous and forgotten women artists of the past. Created in collaboration with MaryAnn L. Miller and poets J.C. Todd, Vasiliki Katsarou, Marilyn Nelson, Angela O’Donnell, Christine Salvatore, Kim Bridgford, April Lindner, and Sarah Sousa. Included in the collections of The Smithsonian Museum, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Lafayette College, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Penn State University, and the Driskell Center for African American Art.
Sacred Sisters | Rives BFK,, metal, book cloth | Edition 12 Artist book created in collaboration with poet Marilyn Nelson. Brigham's paintings depict eight nuns who were artists or writers while Brigham imagines the nuns in the midst of their creative works, Nelson gives voice to each nun with a poem phrased as a prayer. Included in the collections of Rutgers University, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Penn State University, Swarthmore College, Oberlin College, Smith College, Lafayette College, and The Smithsonian Museum.
Santa Canterina’s Trinity | watercolor | 29 ½ x 29 ½ inches Saint Catherine of Bologna (1413-‐1463) is an important figure in Catholicism. She remains a greatly respected figure for her spiritual writings, teachings and art. Here she is playing her violetta, working on one of her illuminated manuscripts and standing in front of one of her icon paintings.
Sophonisba and Her Painted Ladies | watercolor | 29 ½ x 29 ½ inches Sofonisba Anguissola (c. 1532–1625) was an Italian Renaissance painter and official court painter to the king, Philip II, of Spain. Her oeuvre had a lasting influence on subsequent generations and opened the way for women of her time to pursue serious careers as artists. She is standing in her studio in Cremona, Italy, where she lived before moving to Spain.
Sor Juana de la Cruz | watercolor | 29 ½ x 29 ½ inches Sister Joan Agnes of the Cross (1648-‐1695) was a self-‐taught scholar, composer, and poet of the Baroque school, and a nun of New Spain. She is considered by many to be the first feminist. Here Sor Juana wears a nun’s shield from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Her poem “She Attempts to Minimize the Praise Occasioned by a Portrait of Herself Inscribed by Truth-‐Which She Calls Ardor,” is featured in the background.
Sorella Plautilla Nelli’s Lamentation | watercolor | 10 x 10 inches Sister Plautilla Nelli (1524–1588) was a self-‐taught Dominican nun-‐artist and the first-‐known female Renaissance painter of Florence, Italy. She is the only woman artist mentioned in Vasari’s The Lives of the Artists. Here she is painting her Lamentation with Saints.
T. de Lempicka on Autopilot (black ink) | Etching | 24 x 24 inches Included in the collections of the Allentown Art Museum, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the William Benton Museum, Bates College Museum of Art, Mt. Holyoke College Art Museum.
T. de Lempicka on Autopilot (magenta ink) | Etching with chine colle and hand coloring | 24 x 24 inches Included in the collections of the Allentown Art Museum, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the William Benton Museum, Bates College Museum of Art, Mt. Holyoke College Art Museum.
Valkyrie | watercolor on gessoed paper | 39 x 27 ½ inches
WASP Bea I Wolf | watercolor | 26 x 26 inches The civilian women who flew with the Women Airforce Service Pilots were wingtip to wingtip with their male counterparts during World War II but were not granted military status until 1977. The medals and relics are from an actual WASP pilot.
John Window | watercolor | 37 x 25 inches
SOLO EXHIBITIONS Holly Trostle Brigham, Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, PA, October-‐December, 2019. Holly Trostle Brigham, Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE, March 12-‐April 6, 2019. Holly Trostle Brigham, Sordoni Art Gallery, Wilkes University, Wilkes-‐Barre, PA, January 1-‐March 3, 2019. Holly Trostle Brigham: Sisters and Goddesses, James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, February 20-‐May 26, 2016. Holly Trostle Brigham, The Ronald K. De Long Gallery, Penn State University, Lehigh Valley Campus, March 15-‐April 29, 2016. Holly Trostle Brigham: Sacred Sisters, in collaboration with poet Marilyn Nelson, William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, October 22-‐December 20, 2015. Holly Trostle Brigham: Seven, Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, January19-‐March 1, 2015. Holly Trostle Brigham: Dis/Guise, Berman Museum of Art, Ursinus College, Collegeville, Pennsylvania, October 17-‐December 22, 2013; and Luther W. Brady Art Gallery, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, January 15-‐February 28, 2014. Holly Trostle Brigham: Myths, Portraits and Self, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, August 5-‐September 27, 2013. Holly Trostle Brigham, The Baldwin School, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, March 3-‐April 18, 2013. Holly Trostle Brigham: Three Stages, Raven Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 18-‐August 9, 2009. Reflected Personae, Ahlum Gallery, Easton, Pennsylvania, May 1-‐June 26, 2005. Undressed in Her Rightful Mind: Paintings by Holly Trostle Brigham, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, August 19-‐November 6, 1998.
SELECTED AWARDS Honorable Mention, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2004. Best of Show, Lancaster County Art Association, Strasburg, Pennsylvania, 2004. First Prize for Watercolor, Harrisburg Art Association, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 2004. Award of Excellence, Artists Guild of Delaware Valley, 2003. David Lloyd Kreeger Prize in Painting, The George Washington University, 1992. Cecille R. Hunt Prize (for watercolor), The George Washington University, 1992. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, scholarship, 1991.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS David C. Driskell Center for African American Art, University of Maryland, University Park, Maryland William Benton Museum, Storrs, Connecticut Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, Pennsylvania Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, Maine Skillman Library, Special Collections, Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley, Massachusetts Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania The Dimock Gallery, The George Washington University, Washington, DC Luther W. Brady Art Gallery/ Corcoran Collection, The George Washington University, Washington, DC National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC Alexander Library, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey
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