Jammie Holmes: Somewhereinamerica

A desire for belonging emanates from the paintings, sculptures, and watercolors of Jammie Holmes’s exhibition “Somewhereinamerica”. The artist’s first show at the Los Angeles art space Various Small Fires, Holmes’s personal memories and experiences as a Black American sit at the visual forefront of his works, intermingled with themes that may find many of his viewers relating to the imagery at hand, including ideas like class, community, tradition, resilience, as well as art historical references. In the compositions on view, humble domestic settings are juxtaposed with ideas of luxury and opulence, suggesting the complexities of finding one’s place in a landscape where these opposing worlds are possible. Visitors at the gallery can expect to find works with a dark, brooding palette of colors, like Lunch break and two cowries, depicting a flurry of hands engaging in a game of dice, a domestic scene called Picture that in 2022, and Not at this table, which features an uneasy interior landscape filled with emptied wine glasses, racially charged figurines, burning candles, and a statuesque figure in the nude.