LOIE HOLLOWELL

Central to Hollowell’s practice is her inquisitive approach to the human form and her ability to compose otherworldly landscapes that challenge the perception of space. Interested in Transcendental and Tantric painting, Hollowell creates work that is meditative in both process and form. Akin to artists like Hilma af Klint, Agnes Pelton and Tantric painter Gulam Rasool Santosh, whose works embrace the conventions of modernist painting and abstraction to visualise transcendental experience, Hollowell’s paintings also implore a spiritual energy. Through the use of symmetry, colour and abstract iconography, Hollowell maps a cartography of psychic space, depicting the essence of the female form unapologetically, sensually and openly.

This is similarly echoed in Hollowell’s formal exploration of illusory space, exemplified by her utilisation of three-dimensional surfaces, muted backgrounds and the contrasting radiant colours of her central forms. Citing the Cubists and Italian Futurists as influences who pushed the limits of figurative representation and kinetic movement in painting, Hollowell expands the physical presence of her work by interrupting the two-dimensional flatness of the painted surface with high-density, geometric forms adhered to the canvas so that each painting protrudes from the wall as sculpture. From a distance, each painting appears flat and tightly rendered, but as the viewer moves closer, three-dimensional shapes, textures and a lacework of brushstrokes emerge.

The exhibition title, Plumb Line, refers to the central compositional line in each painting, as well as the gravitational pull experienced during pregnancy. Although this series builds upon Hollowell’s ongoing study of female forms, this is the first time the full scale of the body is divided and framed within the canvas, meeting the painting’s edge vertically, horizontally, or both. Measuring 6 by 4 ½ feet-the height of Hollowell’s fully erect figure-this suite of paintings is the largest and most sculptural to date. Engaged with the physical and psychic rearrangement of the body during pregnancy and post-partum, each painting is divided into five elements: head, breasts, pregnant belly, vagina and butt. Reconfigured in modular forms along vertical and horizontal lines, these corporeal shapes reflect vibrant hues of blue, red, purple and yellow, each alluding to emotional states of pain, peace, exhaustion and joy.

Plumb Line is Loie Hollowell’s fourth solo exhibition with Pace, following monographic shows with the gallery in London, Hong Kong and Palo Alto. The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog designed by Michael Aberman and featuring poems, an essay and an interview by Iris Cushing, Emma Enderby and Elissa Auther, respectively, to be launched at the close of the exhibition. This catalogue is designed to be a partner publication to the artist’s first monograph, which featured a newly commissioned text by Diana Nawi.