Loie Hollowell

Hollowell’s work explores bodily landscapes through a language of dynamic, otherworldly abstraction. The artist’s semi-autobiographical paintings, drawings, and now NFTs are forged from her distinctive iconography of geometric and organic forms that represent the human body, its capabilities, and its processes. Through her practice, the artist examines her relationship to her own embodied experiences, and her works center on sex, pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and motherhood. Using radiant color, space, light, volume and scale, gradients, and protruding sculptural elements, Hollowell draws viewers into her emotionally and psychologically resonant compositions. The artist’s first solo exhibition at an American museum, Loie Hollowell: Tick Tock Belly Clock, is currently on view at the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at the University of California, Davis through May 8, 2023.

There will be 11 scenes in the Contractions NFT series: closed orbs signifying the final stage of pregnancy, just before childbirth, and orbs featuring one of ten set degrees of openings at their centers, representing each of the ten centimeters of cervix dilation required to begin the second “pushing” stage of labor. Featuring variations in their hues, saturations, and textures, the orbs reflect, on a conceptual level, the artist’s shifting state of mind and body during childbirth, with each of the colors describing her ranging emotional states.

Contractions comprises a total of 280 unique, generative NFTs, reflecting the average number of days in a full-term pregnancy. The colors of these NFTs are drawn from a wide spectrum, from grayscale—which Hollowell has never previously incorporated in her work—to a vivid neon palette. The expansive possibilities of color in the NFTs situate Hollowell’s abstractions in a new light and have influenced her approach to painting and drawing. As an extension of the project, Hollowell will create several new paintings of specific Contractions NFTs.

With this NFT series, Hollowell aims to make her work accessible to a wide audience. Created amid increasing restrictions on reproductive healthcare and the reversal of Roe v. Wade in the United States, the project speaks to personal and shared experiences of pregnancy and childbirth. Hollowell will donate 25 percent of net proceeds from the Contractions NFT sales to Midwest Access Coalition, a practical abortion fund based in the Midwest of the US, and ARC-Southeast, which provides funding and logistical support to individuals seeking reproductive care, including abortion services, in six states in the American South.

Contractions will be presented on Pace’s booth at West Bund Art & Design in Shanghai from November 10 to 13. Further details about AMA discussions with Hollowell on Pace Verso’s and Art Blocks’s digital channels will be released in the coming weeks.

Contractions is realized by Art Blocks and Pace Verso in conjunction with Digital Practice, an artist-focused web3 creative agency that worked in close concert with Hollowell on project conceptualization, art direction, and development. More information about the project can be found at artblocks.io.