Hollis Hammonds

Lives and works in Austin, TX, USA

Artist statement

Built on threads of personal memory and tied to the public collective consciousness, my drawings and installations have ranged in subject matter from personal narrative to social issues, natural and man-made disasters, environmental degradation, and even the complicated relationship Americans have with the media, police brutality, and the criminal justice system. I often draw on inspiration from a fire that consumed my childhood home when I was 15 years old. In the context of climate change, that displacement takes on new meaning. Rather than being an aberration of the past, the incident foretells a potentially apocalyptic future. Nonetheless, I use beauty as a device to seduce the viewer into engaging with serious and often challenging subjects. I rely on drawing in many forms to construct both real and symbolic representations, melding fact and fiction, past and present, to create meaning out of a world currently in turmoil.

Artwork