Evan Holloway’s art exhibit, “Analog Counterrevolution,” opened on March 1 at the Pomona College Museum of Art, as the 35th work in a project series showcasing new and diverse art.
Holloway’s work, which encases an entire room, is unusual to say the least. Holloway has created, with metal grates and wallpaper, a simple yet fantastic illusion.
The artwork, which essentially surrounds its viewers, offers visitors a chance to see the exhibit from a different perspective.
Visitors of the exhibit seemed not only to be pleased but intrigued by Holloway’s work.
“It caught my attention immediately. It’s not an art piece,” Joel Carrasco, a visitor of the museum, said. “The whole room encompasses you.”
Holloway’s installation for the project series is based on his long-term investigation into the history and theory of modernist sculpture, as well as perceptual and psychological phenomena, museum curator Rebecca McGrew said.
The work achieves its goal of evoking a mood by surrounding its viewers in what seems to be a room of shifting, never-ending dots.
More than 90 people attended the opening reception for Holloway’s work and the exhibit was well received.
“I like how it changes your perception,” Joshua Llaneza, a visitor of the museum, said. “It’s something you have to associate with.”
Visitors to the museum found this to be the most interesting aspect of Holloway’s work.
“You’re constantly trying to look beyond it,” Carrasco said. “It feels as if you’re looking from indoors trying to look out.”
Works of this sort, however, are common to Holloway’s style.
“Holloway’s works are fabricated from such materials such as steel, plaster, rope, wood and often include found objects,” McGrew said. “Holloway also considers the relationship between his objects, the meanings of those objects, the viewer’s body and perceptions, and the social environment and physical space surrounding these elements.”
Holloway’s medium of choice was also interesting to those viewing the exhibit.
“It reminds me of outdoors,” Carrasco said. “The metal looks something like a screen door.”
“It’s about just being there,” Llaneza said.
McGrew said there are many reasons why Holloway’s work was a good choice for “Project Series 35.”
“Holloway’s work ultimately succeeds because it combines a personal vision of the contemporary world and a human experience with formal and creative innovations that map sculptural history,” McGrew said.
“You feel like a piece of it,” Carrasco said. “It changes your perception.”
The project series at the Pomona College Museum of Art is in its 10th year.
It was developed to bring experimental art and new techniques to the Pomona College campus.
The works in the series are meant to introduce the experimental concepts of Southern California based artists such as Holloway.
McGrew expressed an interest in the work of Holloway, which made him a clear choice to be the latest artist to have an exhibit in the project series.
“I chose Evan’s work for the Project Series because I have been a fan of his work for some time and felt that it would be a great opportunity for the college to have his work on view,” McGrew said. “I wanted to give Evan his first museum solo exhibition.”
Holloway’s work will be on display at the Pomona College Museum of Art through May 17.
Shanika Scott can be reached at sscott2@ulv.edu.
Journalism operations manager at the University of La Verne. Production manager and business manager of the Campus Times.
