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Loie Hollowell, Standing in Blue, 2018, oil paint, acrylic medium, sawdust, and high-density foam on linen mounted on panel,72" × 54" × 3-1/2" (182.9 cm × 137.2 cm × 8.9 cm) © Loie Hollowell

Loie Hollowell

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Details:

b. 1983, raised in Woodland, CA
Lives in New York, NY

Connect:

(opens in a new window) loiehollowell.com
(opens in a new window) @loiehollowell

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Known for paintings and drawings that explore the bodily landscape, Loie Hollowell’s practice exists in the liminal space between abstraction and figuration, otherworldly and corporeal.

Originating in autobiography, her work explores themes of sexuality, pregnancy and birth. Hollowell’s geometric compositions use symbolic shapes such as the mandorla, ogee, and lingam to build her distinctive visual lexicon. In referencing her own personal experiences, Hollowell’s paintings are at once personal and universal in their fierce vulnerability. Her use of symmetry – often anchoring her compositions in a central, singular axis – relates her paintings to her own body as well as the natural world.

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Loie Hollowell, Body of Water, September 14, 2018, soft pastel and graphite on paper, 26" × 20" (66 cm × 50.8 cm) © Loie Hollowell

For Hollowell, the scale of her work is particularly significant as she creates each work in direct correlation with the size of the body part depicted, be it her head, breasts, groin, or entire body. Furthering her exploration of physicality, Hollowell adheres sculpted forms onto her canvases to confound expectations of painting. Hollowell’s protruding forms are blended seamlessly, forcing the viewer to move around the canvas to determine whether it is an illusory flat surface or three-dimensional. This adds a playful, performative aspect to her work that speaks to Hollowell’s masterful manipulation of space, surface, light and shadow.

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Loie Hollowell, From the Beginning (inversed), 2017, oil paint, acrylic medium, sawdust, and high-density foam on linen mounted on panel, 48" × 36" × 3-1/2" (121.9 cm × 91.4 cm × 8.9 cm) © Loie Hollowell

With strong colors, varied textures, and geometric symmetry, Hollowell’s practice is situated in lineage with the work of American artists like Agnes Pelton, Georgia O’Keeffe and Judy Chicago. She is also greatly influenced by the work of the California Light and Space Movement as well as Neo-Tantric painters like Ghulam Rasool Santosh and Biren De.

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Loie Hollowell, Touchy Subject, 2018, oil paint, acrylic medium, sawdust, and high-density foam on linen mounted on panel, 48" × 36" × 3" (121.9 cm × 91.4 cm × 7.6 cm) © Loie Hollowell

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Loie Hollowell, Direct Shot, 2018, oil paint, acrylic medium, sawdust and high-density foam on linen mounted on panel, 48" × 36" × 3-1/4" (121.9 cm × 91.4 cm × 8.3 cm) © Loie Hollowell

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Loie Hollowell, Beacon, 2018, oil paint, acrylic medium, sawdust and high-density foam on linen mounted on panel, 48" × 36" × 3" (121.9 cm × 91.4 cm × 7.6 cm) © Loie Hollowell

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Loie Hollowell, Point of Entry (lingam between red circles), 2017, oil paint, acrylic medium, sawdust, and high-density foam on linen mounted on panel, 48" × 36" × 3-1/2" (121.9 cm × 91.4 cm × 8.9 cm) © Loie Hollowell

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Loie Hollowell, Lingam Twist in Red and Green, 2016, oil and acrylic medium on linen over panel, 28" × 21" × 2-1/4" (71.1 cm × 53.3 cm × 5.7 cm) © Loie Hollowell

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Loie Hollowell, Swirled Lingams in blue, gray and pink, 2019, oil paint, acrylic medium, sawdust and high density foam on linen mounted on panel, 28-1/8" × 21-1/16" × 2" (71.4 cm × 53.5 cm × 5.1 cm) © Loie Hollowell