Loie Hollowell is a prolific American painter hailing from California and currently based in New York. Her experiential, abstract works of art echo organic and human forms by way of hypnotic shapes that ebb and flow through a kaleidoscopic color palette. A sensual, otherworldly quality in each and every piece beckons viewers to take a closer look at the fine details energized by tantric painting traditions. Hollowell attended college at the University of California, Santa Barbara, as well as earned a prestigious MFA in painting from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Her signature practice melds abstraction and figuration, juxtaposing the intimate and the collective through provocative subjects such as sexuality, pregnancy, and birth. Stemming from an autobiographical heart, the visionary deftly composes mesmeric geometric forms—including the ogee, lingam, and mandorla—in order to communicate a rich visual encounter. Individual works are powerful, vulnerable, and haunting, as Hollowell leverages the natural art of symmetry to balance her creative endeavors while allowing spiritual vibrations to radiate from their core.
Any given artwork’s scale is given the utmost importance by the artist, who replicates the exact size of the body part she is painting. Ranging from the whole of the human body to focusing on the groin or breasts, Hollowell is meticulous in her investigation of the physical and the transcendent. The audience’s perceptions are uniquely challenged with the visionary’s seemingly endless forms which appear to extend out from the canvas itself. A spellbinding play between colors and dimensions ensues, enhancing her must-see shows with a sense of dynamic performance.
A masterful hand for undulating textures, heavenly lights and shadows, and geometric harmonies call to mind female luminaries such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Agnes Pelton, and Judy Chicago. Hollowell additionally finds endless inspiration in Neo-Tantric painters Ghulam Rasool Santosh and Biren De, as well as the California Light and Space Movement.
Earlier this year, in a series that ceremoniously united the sensory and the divine, Jessica Silverman delivered a stunning solo exhibition of new bas-relief paintings by Hollowell. Each of the ten pieces showcased within “In Transition” depicted a luminous orb, with hues ranging from sunny yellow to melancholic, nocturnal blue. With titles like One Centimeter Dilated and Ten Centimeters Dilated, the creative’s exhibition suggested a matriarchal retelling of the story of Genesis. The past decade of Hollowell’s practice was recently on view at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. Entitled “Loie Hollowell: Space Between, A Survey of Ten Years,” it was her first museum survey, taking place in Ridgefield, Connecticut.
