Discover Juliet HOLLAND

Juliet HOLLAND

Painter/Sculptor

Born in Buffalo, NY and raised in Wellesley Hills and Duxbury, Massachusetts, Juliet Holland (1937-2017) moved on from her life as a suburban wife, mother, and social hostess and began her Art practice in the 1960s. Holland’s adult life was spent between two chosen homes; for more than 35 years, she lived between a loft at Bleeker and Broadway in New York City and a tiny fisherman’s cottage in Saugatuck Shores, Connecticut. Her technique mirrored her dual landscapes and incorporated rich layers of sand, paints, clay, powders, metallics, and natural found elements, which were built up, then scratched and scraped back down, creating layers — evoking time. Holland showed in over one hundred one-person and group exhibitions between 1981 and 2018. Her work is held in museums such as the San Antonio Museum of Modern Art, Reading Public Museum, as well as a number of corporate and private collections. Holland was a co-founder of Art Bridge, a program that established an artist exchange between Japan and the United States for twelve years. In addition to being an artist and businesswoman, she worked as a curator of several exhibitions and was on the board of directors of Lamia Ink!, a non-profit organization dedicated to the arts. Her many cats were an important part of her life. She was a voracious reader; there was always a stack of library books on her table. She listened to a very diverse palette of music while she worked: world music, especially reggae, African and Sufi; ambient, especially Brian Eno; new age, indie and college rock, as well as classical.

Credentials

International Exposure

Press article
Museum Exposure

Born Date: 1937
Death date: 2017
United States

Artist Collections

Live

ASOKO

Asoko is a body of work that began in 1998. Each is a mixed media assemblage of wood, paint, sand, canvas and other materials. The early pieces were shown in solo exhibitions at Gallery Marya, Osaka, Japan; Cortland Jessup Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, “Asoko”; and Lamia Ink! Project Room, New York, New York, “Asoko”. She continued to create works in this series through 2004.

CONSTRUCTING MEMORY

This body of work was created between 1993 and 1996. There was a solo show at the Cortland Jessup Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, called “Constructing Memory”. Work from this collection was also exhibited in Japan. Each is a mixed media assemblage of wood, paint, sand, canvas, plaster, cardboard, found driftwood and other materials.

FORZIVIA

This body of work was created between 1989 and 1994. Zivia was a favorite cat, who sadly passed away. In her grief, Juliet began to create works on paper, which she decided to call “Forzivia”. Several of the pieces were exhibited in group shows in this period and were represented by The Cortland Jessup Gallery. Each is a mixed media assemblage on paper of paint, sand, plaster, metallics and other materials.

OCEAN ARROW

This body of work was created between 2002 and 2003. This works on paper were more painterly than much of her other work. She still layered paint, sand, metallics, pebbles and paper pieces on the paper, and she scratched and marred the surfaces creating natural erosion, decay and the passage of time.

OJO CALIENTE

This body of work was created between 1991 and 1992. These works on paper were mounted on foam core to give stability to the deep layers of plaster, sand, paint, metallics, and other materials. She scratched, marred and layered the surfaces creating natural erosion, decay depicting the passage of time.

CLAY COLLECTION I

Juliet began working with clay as a medium in the 1970s, first throwing pots and learning firing techniques, such as pit firing. But pots were an imperfect and limited medium for her expression, so she began creating ‘clay bodies’ that became her canvases. As she created these bodies, she would work in sand and stones, and then fire them in her kiln. Then she would apply layers of sand, paint, pastels, metallics and other materials. She would often scrape back a layer before applying the next elements, thus inferring erosion and the passage of time. This prolific period spanned the 1980s and 1990s.