BENEATH

An Exhibition by Hollis Hildebrand-Mills

 

Ceres Gallery

547 West 27th Street, Suite 201

New York, NY 10001

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September 6 – October 1, 2022

Reception for the Artist: Thursday, September 8th – 6 to 8 PM

Gallery Hours are Tuesday – Saturday 12 noon to 6 PM

212 947-6100

www.ceresgallery.org

 

In 2019, I started three paintings. Jerry Saltz, in an Instagram Direct Message to me, stated that allover abstraction is good, but it’s “better” to have a central figure or object. I chose to isolate the central figure from the confusion of the abstraction, by using little “stars” or round wheels with spokes found in ice molds – little stars forming a circle.

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When COVID 19 hit the U.S. in 2020, and people were dying then by the millions, these spoke-y, spooky little circles looked like spores (germs) and the skulls represented to the viewer the death of the population. It seemed at the time what I didn’t know in 2019 became what was to come.

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Evolving out of the theme of this series came school shootings, random deaths, anger about gun control (on both sides), virtual learning, abortion rights and the talk in schools about transgender (how young, etc.).

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BENEATH is focused on the idea that the artist concentrates on the work with clear ideas. But what surrounds the artist (the state of the world and the force of the future), when working, is what the artist picks up subconsciously.

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At least, that’s how I do it.