Kathleen Holder’s visionary images, rich in luminescence and nuance, seek to capture the transitory elements of a place or experience, such as mood, temperature and light. A transformative meditative experience resulted in Holder’s drive to make works that capture unseen energies and forces. In what she calls “psychic, abstract landscapes,” the viewer is transported to spiritual realms of veiled color fields and visceral sources of light. Through her layering of pastels and burnishing and blending of the colors by hand, Holder’s work assumes a Rothko-esque atmospheric haziness. Following a reductive path from figuration to abstraction toward a more subtle minimalism over the course of her career, Holder strives to convey pure essence through her creative practice.
Kathleen Holder is Professor Emerita from the University of Arkansas, Little Rock. She received her BFA and MFA degrees from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and currently resides in Buda, Texas. She has exhibited at galleries and institutions in Nashville, Chicago, Washington D.C., San Antonio, and Houston. Her work is featured in the collections of Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock; Arthur Andersen & Company, Little Rock; Donaghey Foundation Headquarters, Little Rock; Entergy Corporation, Little Rock; Ernst & Young, Little Rock; Hotel Elysian, Chicago; International Paper Corporation, Memphis; Kemper Art Collection, Chicago; McKinsey & Company, Chicago; Microsoft Corporation Headquarters, Seattle; Pfizer, Memphis; Rose Family Foundation, Memphis; Searle Collection of Contemporary Art, Chicago; The University of Arkansas, Little Rock; The University of Arkansas School of Law, Little Rock, and the Waldorf Astoria, Chicago, among others.
