From Austin, Texas
Artist Statement:
Built on threads of personal memory and tied to the public collective consciousness, my drawings and installations have ranged in subject matter from personal narrative to social issues, natural and man-made disasters, environmental degradation, and even the complicated relationship Americans have with the media, police brutality, and the criminal justice system. I often draw on inspiration from a fire that consumed my childhood home when I was 15 years old. In the context of climate change, that displacement takes on new meaning. Rather than being an aberration of the past, the incident foretells a potentially apocalyptic future. Nonetheless, I use beauty as a device to seduce the viewer into engaging with serious and often challenging subjects. I rely on drawing in many forms to construct both real and symbolic representations, melding fact and fiction, past and present, to create meaning out of a world currently in turmoil.
Artist Biography:
Hollis Hammonds is a multimedia artist whose work investigates social issues ranging from economic disparity and state violence to environmental degradation and man-made disasters. Her dystopian drawings and found-object installations have been widely exhibited throughout the US, including solo exhibitions at venues such as Women & Their Work in Austin, TX, Redux Contemporary Art Center in Charleston, SC, Dishman Art Museum in Beaumont, TX, and the Reed Gallery in Cincinnati, OH. She has been an artist in residence at McColl Center for Art + Innovation, University of Wisconsin-Marathon, Indie Grits Film Festival, and Atlantic Center for the Arts. Hammonds is the author of Drawing Structure: Conceptual and Observational Techniques and has had her creative work featured in New American Paintings, Manifest’s International Drawing Annual, FOA, Uppercase, and Art on Paper. She is a Professor of Art and Chair of the Department of Visual Studies at St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX.