Lonnie Holley

Lonnie Holley was born on February 10, 1950 in Birmingham, Alabama. From the age of five, Holley worked various jobs: picking up trash at a drive-in movie theatre, washing dishes, and cooking. He lived in a whiskey house on the state fairgrounds and in several foster homes. His early life was chaotic and Holley was never afforded the pleasure of a real childhood.

Since 1979, Holley has devoted his life to the practice of improvisational creativity. His art and music, born out of struggle, hardship, but perhaps more importantly—out of furious curiosity and biological necessity—has manifested itself in drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, performance, and sound. Holley’s sculptures are constructed from found materials in the oldest tradition of African American sculpture. Objects, already imbued with cultural and artistic metaphor, are combined into narrative sculptures that commemorate places, people, and events. His work is now in collections of major museums throughout the country, on permanent display in the United Nations, and has been displayed in the White House Rose Garden. In January of 2014, Holley completed a one-month artist-in-residence with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation in Captiva Island, Florida,  site of the acclaimed artist’s studio.

Space One Eleven Involvement: Resident Artist and Exhibiting Artist: Embracing Our Past, Reclaiming Our Future: The Art of Lonnie Holley, His Friends and Inheritors 2001; Exhibiting Artist: Celebrating the Vision: Self Taught Artists of Alabama 2000, Now and Then 2007, Time Paths – Structure Sequences 2007, Barriers 2011-2012, Sampler Part 1 2011-2012; City Center Art Teaching Artist and mentor: 1991-2000