Edward Holland is a painter’s painter. We met in 2007 in our mutually divided studio at New York University campuses in Venice, Italy and New York. It was an honor to temporarily share a space with him and have an inside look into the cerebral dialogue made external on the surface of canvas and paper. Ted allows the paint to play a role in his compositional and thematic choices. Color forms are dominate and are interspersed with linear draftsmanship as well as layering of collage, comprised both of contemporary and vintage editorial clippings and photographs. The paintings are dynamically meditative; landscape and surface based. The more time a viewer is willing to become acquainted with the work, the more he/she will discover nestled in the content and imagined through malleable personal interpretation and experience.
In his most recent series, Ted has intently referenced art historical works, including the detailed, highly representational landscapes of the Hudson River School, re-interpreting geography including lush trees and billowing, cloud filled skies. In doing so he’s looked beyond individual paintings and lifts the veil into a world of painted space. He transposes organics into color form, composing geometric textures and territories that are both landscape and the antithesis of landscape.
Ted makes consistent paintings that evolve as new words (brought on by variation in surface texture, medium etc.) are added into his visual vocabulary. The anti-narrative of the content sometimes cheats on itself via the descriptive titles which are both tongue in cheek and informative. After spending time investigating the Hudson River School he is currently reformatting his exploration and dealing with the concept of interior, which is emotional, remembered and imagined. Whereas once a visual reference was the catalyst for the work, now he must delve deeper, stepping away from another person’s vision entirely, and rely solely on his own.
Edward Holland will have a solo show at Gerald Peters in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, upcoming Spring 2012. He has paintings currently in galleries in New Mexico, several venues in New York, including New York University Strauss Institute, and will participate in summer group shows at Gerald Peters and Phyllis Weston Gallery in Cincinnati.
Stay tuned!!
xo
— Posted from my iPhone
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