Born in Alabama, Lonnie Holley is the seventh of 27 children. Separated from his family as a baby, Holley’s chaotic childhood forced him to grow up fast, making his own way in the world by pulling a wagon collecting other men’s trash, selling it or repurposing it. Holley is an artist who creates his work from the things he collects everywhere he goes.

The genesis of this group of collages began when Holley noticed a piece of old plywood in the studio during a visit to Paulson Fontaine Press. Lonnie grabbed our jigsaw and started cutting out figures, exposing his predilection for nested and overlapping human forms, chambered nautiluses of ancestry, community, and the promises of a future within the past.

Paul Arnett writes, “Within this process, Holley references his art-making roots: woodblock prints were made from jigsawed plywood forms pieced together into a single wood “plate.” (Holley’s original outdoor art environment, constructed in the 1980s and ’90s in Birmingham, was ringed by cutout wooden forms much like these.) With these understatedly autobiographical prints, he has reimagined a staple of yard art—the plywood cutout—as the basis for a distinctly fine-art medium—the print—while referencing an ancient civilization that existed (like American music) at the boundary of Europe and Africa.”

Working proofs from the previous woodblock project were saved knowing Holley advocates reuse, and during two sessions in residence he created magnificent collages of cut up prints, papers, and spray-paint. The collages are the largest two-dimensional works the artist has produced and mark a significant addition to his oeuvre.