Worthless Matter: Works by Hollis Hammonds

Exhibit dates: May 16 – June 28, 2014

Exploring consumerist culture through evidence of accumulation, hoarding and collecting, piles of rubble permeate the works of Hollis Hammonds. Growing up in semi-rural Kentucky, the youngest child of depression era parents, her surroundings were those of cold war stockpiling, nick-knack collections, and junk-yard recycling. After surviving a house fire in her teens, piles of burnt keepsakes created a lasting impression on her, of the impermanence and worthlessness of superficial possessions. Ranging from documentary studies of storms and storm damage, to elaborate drawings of trash heaps and landfills, to sculptural wall installations of crashing waves; her works often illustrate imaginary piles of debris left after fictional natural and man-made disasters. Post-apocolyptic in nature, her recent and past works deal with memory, material consumption, waste, catastrophe and superficial loss.

Hollis Hammonds is a Kentucky born artist who has been living and working in Austin, Texas since 2007. Hammonds received her MFA from the University of Cincinnati in 2001, and her BFA in drawing fro Northern Kentucky University in 1998. Her work ranges in media from drawing to painting, to video and sculptural installations. She has exhibited her work throughout the U.S. including solo exhibitions at the Museum of Art at Southern Mississippi University in Hattiesburg, MS; the Hiestand Galleries at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio; Flex Space, Pump Project Satellite Space in Austin, TX; Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX; and the University of St. Mary Gallery in Leavenworth, KS. She is the author of Drawing Structure: Conceptual and Observational Techniques, and has had her creative work published in INDA 4, INDA 7, INDA 8, Studio Visit Magazine, and Uppercase Magazine. Currently she is the Chair of the Department of Visual Studies at St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX.

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Selected Press on Worthless Matter
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