VCUarts alum draws attention to sexuality, pregnancy, more in exhibition

Ghailah Nyeanchi, Contributing Writer 

VCU will be home to a series of abstract, exemplary paintings loaned from various collectors and created by a VCUarts alum for the next several weeks. 

The Anderson Gallery presents “Drawing in Urtext” from Aug. 22 to Oct. 18. It features 25 drawings created by VCUarts alum Loie Hollowell. 

Hollowell’s work blends two definitions of drawings: the preliminary sketch to a subsequent work and a pairing to a fully developed piece, according to the VCUarts website. 

Hollowell’s work explores subjects related to sexuality, pregnancy and birth through geometric composition, shapes and symmetry, according to the Pace Gallery website. 

Hollowell’s favorite work “Belly, breast…” is a soft pastel on paper that features significant parts of pregnancy: a belly, placenta, fetus, buttocks and breasts. All of her work is based on her own body, she said.

“Parenthood and pregnancy at birth aren’t really explored in art,” Hollowell said. “As someone who has been pregnant and gave birth, I thought it was too intense an experience to ignore.” 

The drawings are flat templates for her final paintings, which are more sculptural and three-dimensional, according to Hollowell. 

Hollowell said her career was launched because of Riley Howard, a visiting artist and professor at VCU. 

“I never would’ve had this connection without going to VCU,” Hollowell said. 

Hollowell got to connect with Howard and know his work during her time in graduate school at VCU, she said. After graduation, she moved to New York City and began sharing her work on Instagram. 

Howard viewed Hollowell’s work online and at her studio and then he offered to give her a show at his gallery, Hollowell said. From there, she received a review from The New York Times. 

“Keep grinding away at making art and challenging yourself,” Hollowell said. “Make connections with artistic circles and don’t give up.”

One of the most unique features of the pieces in the exhibit are the notes scrawled at the margins, said Monica Kinsey, The Anderson’s administrative coordinator. 

“All of the annotations and text point to things she might want to change later on,” Kinsey said. “It’s a great way to peek behind the curtain and understand what’s going on in the artist’s head as she is conceiving what the final piece will look like.” 

The drawings in the exhibition are smaller pieces of Hollowell’s larger, fully-furnished works, according to Kinsey.

“They are studies for the bigger picture,” Kinsey said.

Sam Robinson, a VCUarts sculpture student, agrees that the text is a distinctive and clarifying feature. 

“The words give everyone more access into what the artist was thinking at the moment,” Robinson said. “Not only about what we are seeing in the work, but how she was seeing the piece unfold and transform.”

It is not unusual for painters to make drawings; however, the drawings are often subordinate to the paintings, according to Chase Westfall, The Anderson curator. 

Hollowell’s drawings are special because the works are more than just preparatory pieces, according to Westfall. There is an investment of care and energy that is uniquely expressed in the pieces. 

Hollowell ensures the drawing is precious by making sure it has an integrity unto itself, Westfall said. 

The exhibition contains a wonderful group of paintings with powerful contrasts, according to Westfall. 

It was exciting and rewarding for Westfall to work with an artist who had personal roots with VCU and who is interested in being brought back into the conversation with a community that they care about, he said. 

“We’ve got places where common things are brought together and places where you can appreciate differences,” Westfall said. “We hope we’ve set it up in a way where you can appreciate the rush of the story and be satisfied by the scenery at the same time.”