Saturday 18 March 2023, 2pm
Lonnie Holley was born on February 10, 1950 in Birmingham, Alabama. From the age of five, Holley worked various jobs: picking up trash at a drive-in movie theatre, washing dishes, and cooking. He lived in a whiskey house, on the state fairgrounds, and in several foster homes. His early life was chaotic and Holley was never afforded the pleasure of a real childhood.
Since 1979, Holley has devoted his life to the practice of improvisational creativity. His art and music, born out of struggle, hardship, but perhaps more importantly, out of furious curiosity and biological necessity, has manifested itself in drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, performance, filmmaking and music. Holley’s sculptures continue the improvisational African American tradition of using found materials. Objects cast aside, or freighted with cultural meaning, are combined into narrative sculptures that commemorate places, people, and events. His work is now in collections of major museums throughout the country (including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Gallery of Art, among many others), on permanent display in the United Nations, and been displayed in the White House Rose Garden. In January of 2014, Holley completed a one-month artist-in-residence with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation in Captiva Island, Florida, site of the acclaimed artist’s studio.
Holley did not start making and performing music in a studio nor does his creative process mirror that of the typical musician. His music and lyrics are improvised on the spot and morph and evolve with every event, concert, and recording. From his earliest days as an artist, Holley would construct and deconstruct his visual works, repurposing elements for new pieces. This fluidity creates composite images that have depth and purpose beyond the original meanings of the works. The layers of sound in Holley’s music, likewise, are the result of decades of evolving experimentation. He has released 5 critically acclaimed albums, including MITH (2018), which The New Yorker named one of the best albums of the decade.
