"Cannonball" Opening Reception

Opening Reception

"Cannonball"

Paintings by Aaron Holz

www.aaronholz.com

3:00-5:00pm with an Artist Talk at 4:00pm

Refreshments and light hors d'oeuvres provided

Come and go event, Free to attend, All ages welcome

On view: January 12 - April 6, 2019

Cannonball is a powerful and insightful exhibition created by Aaron Holz. Trips to Wounded Knee and Standing Rock inspired these visual displays of explosive color, shapes, and layered spaces. The paintings transfuse fractured geometric patterns within layers of paint and symbolism, creating a hybrid response that blends traditional painting with injections of digital matrixing and abstraction. Each painting, named after events and locations of turmoil and celebration, ignite deeper conversations on American history, land, and expansionism.

Artist Statement:

Cannonball uses the landscape and events surrounding Wounded Knee and Standing Rock as its inspiration and departure. The paintings do not serve as illustration for what transpired at each location, but use these places as a reference point in generating a distinct hybrid response to American ideas of expansionism and land. From a simple prairie rose to dense combinations of geometry, atmosphere and landscape, this work exists in a space that embraces the notion of paint being both something and not something. Working with indirect painting methods that use multiple layers and surfaces to create an image, the work resonates in an optically charged environment. The exhibition also includes “Symbol Shift”, Holz’s second single channel video that replaces the tonality of the paintings and replaces them with a rapid tempo of graphic symbols including flags, alchemical symbols, native pattern and design.

Bio:

Aaron Holz is a Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. He has exhibited work throughout the country including four solo exhibitions in New York as well as international exhibitions in London and Basel, Switzerland. Reviews of his work have appeared in New York Arts Magazine, The Lincoln Journal Star, The New York Sun and The New York Times. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Sheldon Museum of Art, The University Art Museum at The University of Albany in addition to prominent private collections in Europe and the United States.