Visual Arts Alum James Holl ’77 Celebrated in Three Fall Exhibitions

Visual Arts alum James Holl ’77 is being celebrated with three new exhibitions in the Hudson Valley this fall. The exhibits, opening at TurnPark Art Space in Massachusetts, Athens Cultural Center, and The Lockwood Gallery in New York, are in tandem with the release of Holl’s new publication, The Landscape Painter 1972-2023, from publisher Edizioni Grifo.

“I got these shows as a book launch exhibition,” explained Holl, “about my artwork from my days at Columbia to the present.” The book is a look back at Holl’s work as it evolved from one era to the next, and the exhibitions reflect his diverse practice.

The Athens Cultural Center and TurnPark Art Space will be showing sculptures and paintings from Holl’s Particle Points Collision series. Via sculpture and painting, Holl explores the particles that compose our universe and lends form and scale to the invisible quantum transformations driving modern physics.

The Lockwood Gallery will feature a sampling of Holl’s earlier work, including selections from the new book and works from his Indeterminate Landscapes, in which he also dives into questions of scale, examining the earth from an aerial perspective. 

The idea for the landscapes came during a trip to Joshua Tree National Park in California, shortly after the events of 9/11 in New York. Holl and his wife took a ride in a glider, and he was taken by how the massive rock formations flattened out from an aerial view, like pebbles beneath your feet. 

“Human beings consider scale from the point of view of their own scale,” said Holl. “When you break that sense of scale, then you get another conceptual understanding of what…being in the world is about.”

With over 50 years working in the arts, Holl is a well of good advice, encouraging young artists to develop multiple skill sets and make themselves available to diverse opportunities; a practice echoed in his own career. “I didn't come from money,” he recalled. “I had to make money.”

After landing a job as a design assistant at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he became an early adopter of Adobe Photoshop, a program that would enhance his own practice and help him find work teaching the new technology. Later, he would open an ad agency, and take inspiration from the products he was selling, turning them into their own unique art pieces.

Holl is also quick to highlight the importance of relationships in building a practice. “I remember my first show was in a friend of mine’s apartment,” he recalled. “A one to one connection is what will open doors.”

It all contributes to having a meaningful practice in the arts, and for Holl that’s a goal much loftier than commercial or critical success. “Having your artwork express yourself, or your personality, your soul or your emotion or your intellect combined, that’s the goal, and that's success,” he said. “Success isn’t fame and fortune, it’s self realization.”

James Holl: From Energy, Matter Emerges runs from September 14 to October 31 at TurnPark Art Space. James Holl, Particle Point Collisions runs from October 26 to November 10 at Athens Cultural Center. James Holl Indeterminate Landscapes runs from November 2 to December 1 at The Lockwood Gallery