Loie Hollowell: Drawing as Urtext

August 18, 2023

Loie Hollowell: Drawing as Urtext
August 22–October 18, 2023
Artist Talk: 12–1pm Friday, October 6 (rescheduled from Sept. 15)
Reception: 5–7pm Friday, October 6 (rescheduled from Sept. 15)

VCUarts and The Anderson are pleased to present Drawing as Urtext, an exhibition of 25 drawings by VCUarts alumna Loie Hollowell (MFA Painting + Printmaking, 2012) curated by Chase Westfall, Curator of Student Exhibitions and Programs at the Anderson. The first ever exhibition devoted exclusively to Hollowell’s drawings, Drawing as Urtext will explore the unique significance of the artist’s drawing practice. In practical and art historical terms, drawing is generally understood within two registers: as a preparatory practice in planning for a larger or more detailed work; or as a peer practice, asserting itself as a creative end alongside other, sometimes more established, practices such as painting and sculpture.

The drawings of Loie Hollowell merge both of these registers within a single act. Her drawings are both ‘preparatory’, as precursors to future works, and ‘peer,’ as fully-realized works in their own right. Especially noteworthy is the fact that in this merger, contrary to expectation, both modes retain their full, simultaneous utility and legibility. Neither function is compromised nor encroached upon by the other. Nor are they harmonized, nor averaged, but retained as dually operative poles within a striking visual metaxis.

Borrowing from the vocabulary of music scholarship, the exhibition will categorize such drawings as urtext, a term for the original manuscript of a musical composition which provides the foundation for future explorations and iterations of the composition and its themes (and which, like Hollowell’s drawings, often include hand-written notes and annotation by the composer). The urtext, then, is
an original which also serves as a generative point of departure—something to be built from while holding its value and importance alongside later developments.

Loie Hollowell (b. 1983, Woodland, California) is known for paintings and drawings that explore the bodily landscape. Hollowell’s practice exists in the liminal space between abstraction and figuration, otherworldly and corporeal. Originating in autobiography, her work explores themes of sexuality, pregnancy and birth. Hollowell’s geometric compositions use symbolic shapes such as the mandorla, ogee, and lingam to build her distinctive visual lexicon. In referencing her own personal experiences, Hollowell’s paintings are at once personal and universal in their fierce vulnerability. Her use of symmetry – often anchoring her compositions in a central, singular axis – relates her paintings to her own body as well as the natural world.

Hollowell holds a BFA from the College of Creative Studies at University of California, Santa Barbara and received an MFA in 2012 from Virginia Commonwealth University, in Richmond, VA. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is held in the public collections of institutions globally including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Long Museum, Shanghai; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Albertina Museum, Vienna; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; The Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; and The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT among others.

*VCUarts Lecture Series: Loie Hollowell in conversation with Katie Anania
Friday, October 6, 12–1pm (rescheduled from Sept. 15)
In-person at the Grace Street Theater (934 W. Grace St.)

Please join us on Friday, October 6th, 12–1pm for a conversation between Loie Hollowell and art historian Katie Anania. Hollowell and Dr. Anania will discuss recent developments in Hollowell’s practice, Hollowell’s experiences as a VCUarts student, and the important role drawing plays in Hollowell’s creative process. The conversation will be followed by an audience Q&A, and can be viewed in person or online.

The artist talk and exhibition are free and open to the public.

To participate virtually, register here.