Glen Holland's compelling still life paintings invite the viewer into an intimate and meditative space in which to contemplate the meaning and pleasure of everyday experience. Hollands's images of a single spool of thread, of children's blocks with his initials as the revealed letters, of a small bunch of hot peppers, reveals an underlying wry American humor. His objects, isolated from context, seem to emerge from the dimness of subconscious, and find themselves on a shallow ledge for us to examine and consider. At the same time, the dialogue Holland establishes with the viewer is open-ended, as his paintings seem to invite questions, rather than to propose answers.
His small-sized oil panels are meticulously and expertly handled. Holland's approach is reductive, and it results in complex layers of intellectual and psychological content. Holland's dialogue with a still-life tradition that has its roots in Baroque Spanish, Italian, and Dutch painting, as well as late-18th and early 19th-century American trompe l'oeil still-life painting, serves to amplify the richness of his modern and personal expression.
While representations of the material world, these paintings suggest the spiritual. The isolated object, placed on a shallow ledge against an infinite background of sooty black, recalls medieval icons, but conveys a modern perspective and unique interpretation. At the same time, while Holland's paintings are controlled and rationally planned, the objects have a dream-like quality, with edges softened as they meet the background, and appearing suddenly without context. Rather than being simply adroit trompe l'oeil paintings, inviting the viewer to touch a seemingly tangible object, Holland's images simultaneously connote childhood memory, collective cultural memory, as well as immediate physical senses of touch, sight, taste and smell.
Glen Holland earned his M.F.A. degree from The Ohio State University and his B.F.A. from the University of Texas, Arlington. He has been awarded artist's grants, including a travel grant to Holland and Spain during his graduate studies at O.S.U. In the past five years, Holland has had works shown in many one-man, and group shows, including a traveling show (2000-2001) focusing on contemporary still-life painting organized by the Columbus College of Art and Design. He has had one-man shows at the Fischbach Gallery in New York City, at the Spaces gallery in Cleveland, as well as at Keny Galleries. His work has been represented in group shows in Columbus, Ohio and in New York, juried by nationally-known artists, such as Janet Fish, Duane Michaels, and Ann Hamilton.
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