Project Type: Public Art

Holly Wilson-Red

Red

As children, we make and wear masks to become anything we want or need to be. We can do anything in them, from being a superhero to a bird in flight. As adults, the layers and meaning of masks deepen and grow. They are a way to represent the different personas that we need or desire to be in life. Masks are an identity that one can live through or hide behind.

RED
Archival Color Photograph
mounted on 1/4″ plexi with museum mount
36″ x 24″

2, 4, and 5 available from the edition of 5

For inquiries, please contact:
The Studio
Mustang, OK 73064 | 405.308.0239

In the Collection of:

  • Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Indianapolis, Indiana
  • C. N. Gorman Museum, Davis, California
  • Spiva Center for the Arts, Joplin Missouri

Exhibition History

  • The Thread that Connects, Spiva Center for the Arts, Joplin Missouri (January 14 – March 4)
  • On Turtle’s Back, Pauly Friedman Art Gallery, Misericordia University, Dallas, Pennsylvania (September 8 – October 11, 2022)
  • Upturned Flower That Travels, The Volland Store, Alma, Kansas (November 6 – December 5, 2021 )
  • Holly Wilson: Talk Story, C.N. Gorman Museum, University of California-Davis
    (January 9-March 16, 2018)

 

Holly Wilson-Ghost of the Dead

Ghost of the Dead

In a strategic trickster twist, I feature children, often masked, as a tool to bring the viewer into my work. Masks are multi-layered. They are a mechanism to hide or obscure our true intentions, acting as a wall between us and the world. Masks are also agents of transformation, powerful and sometimes dangerous.

My work attempts to explore what lies beneath or in the shadows. I am intrigued with the power of these shadows in our lives and how they haunt us or make us doubt our reality, at times even terrorizing us. I consciously incorporate shadows in my work by controlling the lighting and relationships of the figures, giving form to the secrets that linger in our lives.

GHOST OF THE DEAD
Archival Color Photograph
mounted on 1/4″ plexi with museum mount
24″ x 36″

1, 2, 3, and 5 available from the edition of 5

For inquiries, please contact:
The Studio
Mustang, OK 73064 | 405.308.0239

In the Collection of:

  • C. N. Gorman Museum, Davis, California

Exhibition History

  • The Thread that Connects, Spiva Center for the Arts, Joplin Missouri (January 14 – March 4)
  • On Turtle’s Back, Pauly Friedman Art Gallery, Misericordia University, Dallas, Pennsylvania (September 8 – October 11, 2022)
  • Upturned Flower That Travels, The Volland Store, Alma, Kansas (November 6 – December 5, 2021 )
  • Holly Wilson: Talk Story, C.N. Gorman Museum, University of California-Davis
    (January 9-March 16, 2018)
Holly Wilson-The Strong

The Strong

THE STRONG

My work attempts to explore what lies beneath or in the shadows. I am intrigued with the power of these shadows in our lives and how they haunt us or make us doubt our reality, at times even terrorizing us. I consciously incorporate shadows in my work by controlling the lighting and relationships of the figures, giving form to the secrets that linger in our lives.

Archival Color Photograph
mounted on 1/8″ plexi with museum mount
24″ x 36″

1, 3, 4 and 5 available from the edition of 5

For inquiries, please contact:
The Studio
Mustang, OK 73064 | 405.308.0239

In the Collection of:

  • C. N. Gorman Museum, Davis, California

EXHIBITION HISTORY

  • The Thread that Connects, Spiva Center for the Arts, Joplin Missouri (January 14 – March 4)
  • On Turtle’s Back, Pauly Friedman Art Gallery, Misericordia University, Dallas, Pennsylvania (September 8 – October 11, 2022)
  • Upturned Flower That Travels, The Volland Store, Alma, Kansas (November 6 – December 5, 2021 )
  • Holly Wilson: Talk Story, C.N. Gorman Museum, University of California-Davis
    (January 9-March 16, 2018)
Two Sides of the Self-sm-Holly Wilson

Two Sides of the Self: Yellow and Blue

Two Sides of the Self: Yellow and Blue

Crayola Crayons on Panel, 8” x 8” x 2”, 2022

Sold

Currently on view in a Solo Exhibition
“On Turtle’s Back”
September 8 – October 11, 2022
Pauly Friedman Art Gallery
Misericordia University
301 Lake Street
Dallas, PA 18612
1.570.674.8420

For inquiries, please contact:
The Studio
Mustang, OK 73064 | 405.308.0239

IN THE COLLECTION OF

  • Pauly Friedman Art Gallery, Misericordia University, Dallas, Pennsylvania

Exhibition History

  • On Turtle’s Back, Pauly Friedman Art Gallery, Misericordia University, Dallas, Pennsylvania (September 8 – October 11, 2022)
Awakening-Holly Wilson

Awakening

AWAKENING
Archival Color Photograph
mounted on 1/4″ plexi with museum mount
24″ x 36″

1, 3, 4, and 5 available from the edition of 5

For inquiries, please contact: The Studio

In the Collection of:

  • C. N. Gorman Museum, Davis, California

Exhibition History

  • Holly Wilson: Talk Story, C.N. Gorman Museum, University of California-Davis
    (January 9-March 16, 2018)

 

Bloodline The Matriarchs-Holly Wilson

Bloodline: The Matriarch

Bloodline: The Matriarchs

2017, 29” x 11.5’ x 9”, Unique Cast Bronze with Patina, Cedar, and Steel

The figures walk across a cedar tree base that is cut lengthwise exposing the rough center revealing the lines that show its life and history. Growing up, my mother would use cedar to purify our home, release spirits, and chase away bad dreams. That smell for me is home. I de-barked the exterior but kept the curve of the tree and its raw surface. You see the figures walking through time—their life above and the tree’s life below.

The Cigar Figures come from a childhood Native American story that my mother told of the “Stick People.” The “Stick People” would run through the night and call your name; if you went with them, you were never heard from again. She never described the figures and I was always drawn to the idea of what they looked like. The Cigar Figures are my reimagining of that story, now a story of family and my past—a complicated narrative of loss, survival, and resilience. The figures are made from real cigars and found sticks cast in bronze. The faces are of the ancestors from my past as far back as I can trace.

There are sections for each generation, beginning with my children. Though I only have two, there are five figures. Each life is counted and the children who did not survive are remembered with a place on the wood in history; their forms small and their heads bowed. Next, I have my section with my sisters and brother followed by my mother’s history. When hung, the light casts a shadow of the figures on the wall. This shadow represents memory for me. Like a shadow, these memories cannot be held, and in the end, we are all only a shadow in history, shadows on this earth.”

Sold Through the Studio

In the Collection of Virginia Museum of Fine Art, 200 N. Boulevard Richmond, VA 23220

Exhibition History

  • Hear My Voice: Native American Art of the Past and Present, Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond VA (August 19-November 26, 2017)
  • Hear My Voice: Native American Art of the Past and Present, Taubman Museum, Roanoke, Virginia (September 28 – January 6, 2018)
  • Hear My Voice: Native American Art of the Past and Present, Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, Winchester, Virginia (Feb 17 – July 22, 2018)
Bloodline The Matriarchs-Holly Wilson
Bloodline: The Matriarchs

Bloodline The Matriarchs-Holly Wilson
Bloodline: The Matriarchs

Holly Wilson-In Song

In Song

IN SONG
Archival Color Photograph
mounted on 1/4″ plexi with museum mount
24″ x 36″


2, 4, and 5 available from the edition of 5

For inquiries, please contact: The Studio

In the Collection of:

  • C. N. Gorman Museum, Davis, California
  • Private Collection

Exhibition History

  • Holly Wilson: Talk Story, C.N. Gorman Museum, University of California-Davis
    (January 9-March 16, 2018)

 

Its a Thin Line-wall shadow-Holly Wilson

It’s A Thin Line

IT’S A THIN LINE

2013, 9.5” x 3.5” x 9.5”, Unique Cast Bronze with Patina, and African Mahogany

In so many things there is a thin line that on one side you are in complete joy and the other complete devastation. The space between the two emotions seemed like it should be so much farther apart from one another than it truly is.

SOLD  Through the Studio

In the Collection of Travois, Kansas City, MO 

Exhibition History

  • Below The Surface, Travois, 310 W. 19th Terrace Kansas City, MO 64108
  • Holly Wilson: Talk Story, C.N. Gorman Museum, University of California-Davis (January 9-March 16, 2018)

Holly Wilson-Its A Thin Line-Side View

Holly Wilson-Its A Thin Line-Detail

when-i-close-my-eyes-holly-wilson

When I Close My Eyes

When I Close My Eyes

2018, 36″ x 24″ x 4.5″, Crayola Crayon, Plex Glass, Birch Panel

When I close my eyes and dream I do not see the color of my skin or limitations that have been placed upon me because of who I am or where I come from, I dream of all the possibilities of all the amazing things I can achieve.

While getting my children ready for school we were pulling together pencils, folders, colored pencils, and crayons. They had to have 4 sets of 24 crayons each and we had leftovers from sets of the past years, some colors had never been used, and we were combining them together so we’d know how many new boxes would be required. The kids were talking about their friends at the new school and friends of their past school. In the conversation, they were describing the children “the girl with the yellow hair, the boy with the brown skin”, in a very casual descriptive manner with no malice to the differences. This made me think more about how we see people and how one is judged. The smell of the crayons, the vivid colors, and the thoughts of my youth brought me to this crayon project. How we change in our viewpoints of people, and how we judge people based on race and color. We are all one below that surface, that surface of the skin, no matter the color, the shape, or the origin.

SOLD Through the Studio 

In the Collection of Travois, Kansas City, MO 

Exhibition History

  • Below The Surface, Travois, 310 W. 19th Terrace Kansas City, MO 64108
  • Native American Contemporary, Spiva Center for the Arts, Joplin, M0 (Jan 5- Mar 3, 2018)

when-i-close-my-eyes-holly-wilson

when-i-close-my-eyes-holly-wilson

Sense of Place-Holly Wilson

Sense of Place

Sense of Place

2018, 8”x4”x4″ and 6”x4″x4″, Unique Cast Bronze with Patina and Geode Rock

We strive for human attachment and belonging whether in a place or a sense of self. This boy and girl are not 2 people but oneself, 2 halves of a whole. The geode can reflect the same and when broken open it reveals its sides and secrets hidden within. The figures are not glued to the rock, they are fitted, like a key in a lock. They balance in their stand much like we do in our life.

Sold Through the Studio

In the Collection of The Heritage Center at Red Cloud Indian School, Pine Ridge, South Dakota
Exhibition History
  • Holly Wilson: Talk Story, C.N. Gorman Museum, University of California-Davis
    (January 9-March 16, 2018)
Sense of Place-v4-Holly Wilson
Sense of Place

 

Sense of Place-v1-Holly Wilson
Sense of Place