Tom Holland

Tom Holland at Sanchez Art Center

Sanchez Art Center is proud to present the unique artwork of Bay Area artist Tom Holland. This exhibition of Holland’s recent work opens Friday, January 13, with a reception from 7 to 9 pm, and will run through February 12. Holland’s work is both sculptural and painterly, with colorful, curving surfaces of thin, folded aluminum. Known as one of California's most important contemporary artists, Holland considers the color surfaces and the interaction and motion in his work as the most important aspects of his paintings. He also often works on paper, marble, and copper. Holland will give an Artist’s Talk at 4 pm on Sunday, February 12, the closing day of the exhibition.

Tom Holland lives and works in the Bay Area and has been painting for 50 years. After having attended UC Berkeley, he went to Chile on a Fulbright Grant. He then returned to Berkeley to begin teaching at the San Francisco Art Institute. He has also been on the faculty at UCLA and UC Berkeley. He received both an NEA Grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He now works full-time in his studio in downtown Berkeley.

After having painted in traditional oil on canvas, in the 1970s Holland began using materials that were light and strong but did not require a frame. He uses fiberglass and aluminum, making pieces of color that hang on the wall like stiff tapestry. The thin edges allow each painting to become a part of the space it occupies. Using simple materials and a unique approach combining painting and sculpture, he cuts thin sheets of aluminum to build either a wall painting or a free-standing sculptural form. He then rivets the cut pieces to sheets of aluminum or fiberglass. He uses epoxy paint to achieve the effects of depth, light, reflection, and shadow.

Holland is represented by art galleries in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. His work is in the collections of all the major museums in the United States, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. His work is also represented in the Anderson Collection as well as the Charles Schwab Company, the Mayfield Fund, and the Di Rosa Collection of Contemporary California Art. Holland has recently completed a large installation in the lobby of the Lake Merritt Plaza Building at 1999 Harrison Street in downtown Oakland.

Two concurrent exhibitions will also open at Sanchez Art Center on January 13. The East Gallery hosts Memorandum to Light from Shadows, a group show by Skyline College art students featuring ceramics, sculpture, and photography, curated by Skyline professor Arthur Takayama. The Skyline College Jazz Quintet will present live music and entertainment at the reception.

The West Gallery will exhibit work by members of the Art Guild of Pacifica in a group show entitled Something Edgy. Definitions of “edgy” range from nervously irritable, impatient and anxious, to sharp or biting, sharply defined or outlined, to daringly innovative, provocative, and trend-setting or on the cutting edge. Lots of possibilities here, and as artist Gale Frances says, “Who knows what the cutting edge is? It all depends on how uptight you are when you start out.” Should be interesting!

All three exhibits open Friday, January 13, with a reception for the artists from 7 to 9 pm. Thereafter the galleries are open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 1 to 5 pm, through the exhibit’s close on February 12. Sanchez Art Center is located at 1220 Linda Mar Blvd., Pacifica, California, about 1.5 miles east of Highway 1 and the Pacific Ocean. For more information about the center, call 650-355-1894 or visit www.sanchezartcenter.org.