International Artist-In-Residence
New Works 00.1

Rebecca Holland

San Antonio, TX

March 09–April 16, 2000

about the artist

Born in Colorado Springs, CO in 1962, Rebecca Holland lives and works in San Antonio, TX. Holland holds an M.F.A. in ceramic sculpture from the University of Massachusetts, North Dartmouth and a B.A. in ceramics and painting from Bennington College in Vermont. She has been an artist-in-residence at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE and is currently an adjunct professor at San Antonio College.

Holland has exhibited her work throughout Texas, including one-person exhibitions in San Antonio at San Antonio College (1998): ArtPace (1998); Cactus Bra Gallery (1998); House Space (1997); and Milagros Contemporary Art (1996). Group exhibitions have taken place at Blue Star Art Space, San Antonio; The Arlington Museum of Art, TX; and the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art. James Gallery, Houston, TX represents her work.

Holland’s background as a sculptor and ceramicist inform her use of materials and approach to working with mass and volume. In recent years, she has been working almost exclusively with wax, creating minimalist paintings and objects. Concurrently, her investigations of space have resulted in poetic site-specific installations involving unexpected materials: a gallery space bisected by a screen of dental floss, an isolated, gilded stone in a house’s wall, yellow roses lining the crack between a wall and a floor in a dilapidated warehouse. Heightening architectural history, natural light and sense of smell, Holland’s spatial interventions transform mystery and discovery into matter.

Rebecca Holland was chosen for her ArtPace residency by the March 1998 panel consisting of Dan Cameron, Annette DiMeo Carlozzi, Amada Cruz, Kellie Jones, Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Nancy Rubins.

about the project

For her residency, Holland responds to the shifting northern light of her ArtPace studio. In her studio, she has applied silver leaf to the entire ceiling of the industrial space. The result is a reverberation of light, showering the room and the viewer with a cool, soothing glow. This deceptively simple embellishment of surface envelopes the viewer in a visual silence. The ceiling’s reflection on the gallery’s waxed concrete floors appears liquid.

On ArtPace’s roof deck, Holland offers another visual surprise. The artist has responded to the horizontal lines and industrial materials of the concrete-and-steel roof pavilion, softening the surfaces and injecting graceful lines.

A third piece takes place off-site. A large outdoor billboard has been painted with a mica finish, which produces a subtle, iridescent glow. Sometimes blue, other times gray, the billboard becomes a painting. Bisected with a horizontal line, the sign extends the vast Texas sky. Again, Holland injects a sense of mystery into an otherwise mundane location, interrupting the viewer’s routine environment.

Through her ArtPace installations, Holland evokes emotional responses from the viewer, shifting multiple perceptions. Although her interventions are subtle, the effort is not—the artist’s process-based approach makes the viewer aware not only of appearance but also effect. Her works activate all of the senses: they shimmer and swell, divide and unify, surprise and beckon.

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