DESIRÉE HOLMAN
Desirée Holman has birthed an immersive world exploring fantasy and narrative through her interdisciplinary practice incorporating video, drawing, sculpture and performance. Her works investigate the unknown—what is beyond the empirical and the visible, concepts explored within fantasy, counterculture, technology based groups and science fiction.
Making use of rehearsals, costumes, and props, Holman presents complex social groups, often in a state of change. She describes her work as attempting to “occupy British anthropologist Victor Turner’s notion of liminality, a transitional state of ritual wherein participants fully engaged in performance inhabit a series of new, hybrid identities.” In this space, the artist’s work reveals a complex dialogue about truth and the experience of the ‘real’ world.
Holman holds a Masters degree from the University of California at Berkeley. Earning critical acclaim for her work, Holman was awarded a San Francisco Modern Museum of Art SECA award in 2008 and in 2007 the Artadia: The Fund for Art and Dialogue award. From 2016-2017, she has returned to SFMOMA as a fellow in the Film & Performance Department with a new works commission. Solo exhibitions of her work include the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles (2009), Montreal’s SKOL (2016), Denver’s Black Cube Nomadic Museum (2015), and the Berkeley Art Museum’s MATRIX program (2011). International exhibitions of Holman’s work include the Sao Paulo Museum of Modern Art, Berlin’s Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Milan’s BnD, and Toronto’s YYZ. Reviews of Holman’s work appeared in numerous publications including Artforum, Los Angeles Times, NY Arts, Artillery, San Francisco Chronicle and Artweek. She is based in Oakland, California.
Sophont, 2015, 3 Channel Audio/Video Installation, 12 minutes, Edition of 5
Aura Convergence, Crowley & Cayce, 2013, Goache on Paper, 36 x 72 inches
Sophont in Action, October 1, 2015 , Live Cinema Event including 30 Performers and Projection Mapping , Black Cube Nomadic Museum at Red Rocks Park in Colorado Photo: Sara Ford
Channeling Aura 1, 2012, Watercolor on paper, 30 x 22 inches
Channeling, 2012, graphite on paper, 40 x 26 inches
Channeling Aura 3, 2012, Gouache and watercolor on paper, 30 × 20 inches
Installation View,
Desiree Holman Complete Video Works,
(Troglodyte, The Magic Window, Reborn, Heterotopias, Sophont),
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2016,
Photo Credit: Don Ross,
Psionics 16, 2014, Wood, Acrylic Paint, Plastic, 39 × 12 × 12 inch
Outerspace 2, Acrylic on Panel, 22 × 40 inch
Channeling Aura 5, 2012, Gouache & Watercolor on Paper, 30 × 22 inch
Virtual Player Framework, 2010, Mixed Media Color Pencil on Paper, 20 x 20 inches (framed)
Installation View,
Heterotopias, 2011, Three Channel Video, Installation at the Berkeley Art Museum, MATRIX exhibition
Not Cliff (Conduits of Fantasy) 1, 2009, Color Pencil on paper, 16 × 16 inch
Dancers Dancing in Their Own Digital Ectoplasmic Cocoons 3, 2007, Color Pencil on Archival Paper, 24 × 36 inch
Television (Conduits of Fantasy) 2, 2007, Color Pencil on Paper, 16 × 16 inch
Milkies, 2009, Color Pencil on Archival Paper, 27 × 36 inch
Harem, 2009, Color Pencil on Archival Paper, 16 × 16 inch
Atavism, 2012, Color Pencil on Paper, 16 x 16 inch (artwork) / 20 x 20 inches (framed)
Sophont, 2012, Color Pencil on Paper, 16 x 16 inches (artwork) / 20 x 20 inches (framed)
Primary Framework, 2010, Color Pencil Mixed media, 16 × 16 inches (artwork), 20 x 20 inches (framed)
Flesh Texture (Diffuse Map), 2011, Color Pencil mixed media on Paper, 36 x 36 inches (artwork) / 40 1/8 x 40 1/8 inches (framed)
The Indigo and The Ecstatic: A Motion to the Future, June 2, 2013, Live Performance, SFMOMA