 |
 |
|
|
|
Artist Bio
Born in 1976 in Jackson, Mississippi, Hollis Cooper grew up in New Orleans and Houston before moving to New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and finally California. She received her undergraduate degree with high honors from Princeton University, a Post-Baccalaureate certificate from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and an M.F.A. from Claremont Graduate University. She received a Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Grant Award nomination from the CGU Art Department in 2006, and in 2007 was selected for the Drawing Center's Viewing Program in NYC. Her work has been featured/reviewed in publications such as New American Paintings, Art Papers, Alarm Magazine, and Art World Digest, and has been included in shows throughout the United States. When she is not in the studio, Hollis teaches in the Art Department at California State University, San Bernardino. Resume Click here see my artist's resume in HTML format Click here to download my artist's resume in PDF format Artist Statement I have always been interested in the idea of space, and how we define and use that term. I see space as a fluid concept, moving between something completely abstract (space of the imagination, for example) to literal three-dimensional space. Because of this, my work tends toward the architectural, since it is an easy reference point for most viewers to grasp. I use architectural diagrams as a main element in my work because we are so culturally attuned to them as indicators of "space" that they do not require a lot of additional explanation - even when the type of space they actually represent (abstract, perceptual) is different from the one they purport to represent (concrete, three-dimensional). I am particularly interested in virtual space, and relating it to visual and architectural space. My biggest inspirations have been Baroque illusionism, and graphical user interfaces. I particularly like the Baroque because it has an overflowing of one type of space to the other - a spilling over, breaking of the grid that would otherwise constrain it. Virtual space has many similarities to the Baroque - not only in its predilection for special effects, but also in a general freedom of movement, although perhaps more in the abstract spatial sense than the physical one. I intend for my work to be a flow from this more abstract space (perceptual and psychological space, space of color) to the physical: in the installation work, this occurs by breaking the traditional painterly frame and making the architecture of the room not as something that is (or should be) invisible, but an equal element in the work's construction. I re-introduce elements of Baroque excess - color, flow off the wall, visual cues that break the 2-d plane. I achieve an erasing of figure/ground within the work by activating the entire architectural space around it. The ideas behind the installation pieces put the "traditional" paintings in a more problematic place, but my attitude towards them is that they are the inverse of the installations - they frame a view into space, as opposed to bringing that space outward towards the viewer. Also, our cultural familiarity with the idea of the painterly window - or the more recent idea of the screen and user interface - makes these confining borders relatively invisible, so the paintings are able to take advantage of both framed and unframed attributes, allowing for tighter control over design, but also giving a freedom and flexibility of psychological movement through abstract space - of color, perception, idea - as the elements are delineated from the physical environment in which they exist. I realize that ultimately there are still constraints, but they keep each piece as something digestible and discrete. In both the paintings and installations, I work within a multi-dimensional approach, making the work harder to see as a view into or out of one space, but instead different spaces that are folded and spliced into one another. In the end, though, the strong formal considerations in the work make it so that whatever form it takes, it never really forgets that it's a painting. Also, although parts of my source material and process are digitally-driven, I want viewers to see images that have been humanized by my involvement and interpretation. |