Loie Hollowell Explores Birth and the Body in Latest Works

A few months into 2024 and Loie Hollowell is already having a banner year. The 40-year-old abstract painter known for biomorphic, female forms in radiant, mystical palettes—what she calls “metaphors for the body”—has not one or two but three solo exhibitions this winter. What’s going on? “They’re the compilation of the processing of the birth of my second child and the close connection I got to have with both my kids during the pandemic lockdown,” she explains of her work and offspring, born 2018 and 2020. “I’m having a prolific moment because they’re at an age where I’m able to have longer periods of time in my studio,” which, like her home, is in Ridgewood, Queens.

Things kicked off mid January in San Francisco at Jessica Silverman gallery, which introduced 10 of Hollowell’s new bas-relief paintings of a three-dimensional belly that morphs into a planetary orb. Later that month, the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut, bowed her first museum presentation on the East Coast with 39 works from 2014 to today. In March, with “Dilation,” Pace New York spotlights the artist’s process, which begins with pastel drawings, featuring 10 she has created in the last year. Measuring approx­imately 27 by 30 inches, they’re the largest drawings the gallery’s ever exhibited.