Hollis Hammonds
Austin , TX
A multimedia artist and educator exploring themes related to the environment, climate grief, and The Great Turning.
MessageHollis Hammonds is a multimedia artist whose work, built on memory and utilizing evidence from the public collective consciousness, investigates social issues ranging from economic disparity and state violence to environmental degradation and human-made disasters. Her dystopian drawings and found-object installations have been widely exhibited throughout the US, including solo exhibitions at venues such as Women & Their Work in Austin, TX, Redux Contemporary Art Center in Charleston, SC, Dishman Art Museum in Beaumont, TX, and the Reed Gallery in Cincinnati, OH. Hammonds has been an artist-in-residence at McColl Center for Art + Innovation, the Ucross Foundation, Atlantic Center for the Arts, and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation. Hollis is also part of the collaborative team Hammonds + West whose multimedia projects and exhibitions revolve around the theme of climate grief and making visible individual contributions to climate change. Hammonds is the author of Drawing Structure: Conceptual and Observational Techniques and has had her creative work featured in New American Paintings, Manifest’s International Drawing Annual, FOA (Friend of the Artist Magazine), Uppercase Magazine, LandEscape Art Review, and Art on Paper.
Statement
Built on threads of memory and tied to the public collective consciousness, my mixed media works connect personal narrative to social issues, natural and man-made disasters, and environmental degradation. Working across various mediums and methods, my art serves as a form of storytelling that invites reflection and contemplation on our relationship with the natural world. I often draw on inspiration from a fire that consumed my childhood home when I was 15 years old. In the context of climate change, that displacement takes on new meaning. Rather than being an aberration of the past, the incident foretells a potentially apocalyptic future. My works explore themes of climate grief intertwined with personal memories. My focus lies in conveying the fragility of nature and the impact of human actions on the environment, drawing inspiration from the mysterious depths of forests and piles of debris.
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