Apr 20th, 2021 • 3 minute read
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Curations with Jordan Holms: Ushering in Spring
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Florals are for spring. A classic and a cliche, but a classic for a reason. As the weather gets warmer, the sight of freshly popping daisies, purple bulbs, and little bluebells never gets old. This week we pull together a group of works that celebrate the spirit of spring to brighten up your screens and maybe even your home!
A Breath of Fresh Air
Looking at this intimate acrylic painting, titled Naoshima No. 9, by Camille Warmington feels like a breath of fresh air. The candied pinks and vibrant greens are heightened by the textured application of the paint. Upon closer inspection, a pattern of short, tightly knit brush marks emerges like a blanket woven together. Not unlike the work of Monet, the closer one gets to this piece, the more abstract it becomes.
Like Bubbles Ready to Burst
Indeterminate Landscape Study #3 is a colored pencil drawing by Brooklyn-based artist Amelia Carley. This work has a surreal quality, underscored by the dislocated palms, anthill or skyline. None are anchored to one another nor to a common ground. They float, indeterminately, in space like bubbles ready to burst. The image is at once serene, and packed with latent energy.
Plucking Flowers
This understated painting, titled Uprising, by artist Edwina Lucas is so meticulously crafted. A modest subject, the two dandelions featured in this oil painting are rendered with care and precision––each petal, each leaf, is replete with juicy texture. These often overlooked (or even detested) yellow flowers are made extraordinary in the artist’s image. The thick, all-over texture renders this intimate scene so real, I could reach out and pluck one.
Purple and Yellow Pansies
Untitled Floral (Mardi Gras), a bright oil and collage painting by Houston artist Bradley Kerl, is synonymous with the beginning of spring. The purple and yellow pansies (also traditional Mardi Gras colors) are a hallmark of the beginning of this season. Here, the artist employs these iconic flowers as a pattern, creating a sort of geometric quilt. The repetition of shapes and colors pushes the painting to the edge of abstraction.
Vitality of a Composition
This unusual painting by Max Sarmiento is made of acrylic applied to custom cut wood. While a larger-than-life flower unfurls, the jade blue gives a rush of energy to the work. Although it may not appear to be a typical spring scene, there is something about the vitality of the composition that gives the work a spirited sensibility.
Day-Glow Hues
This painting by Texas-based artist Calhan Hale marries realism with day-glow hues reminiscent of the eighties. The arrangement of flowers and cacti is rendered with precious. The naturalistic colors of the botanicals are balanced out by the fluorescent pink, red, orange, and yellow, pulling the subtle highlights of the flowers to the foreground, while the black and white checkers offer a graphic element to the composition.
Virtual installations courtesy of ArtPlacer
About Jordan Holms
Jordan Holms is an interdisciplinary artist who works primarily in painting, sculpture, and textiles. Her work examines how space is materialized, organized, and made to mean. She has exhibited internationally in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada and her work is held in multiple private collections. In addition to a solo exhibition at Marrow Gallery, her paintings have been included in a group show at SFMoMA Artists Gallery, a number of MFA survey exhibitions, featured at BAMPFA, and in Adidas’s San Francisco Market Street storefront. Most recently, Holms was a recipient of the Vermont Studio Center Artist Grant, where she was an artist-in-residence in February 2020. She is also a 2016-2019 recipient of the San Francisco Art Institute’s Graduate Fellowship Award. She earned a Master of Fine Arts and Master of Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2019, where she graduated with honors. Holms lives and works in San Francisco, California.