"...Jennifer
Holloway paints in an immediately recognizable style. She would be easy to pick
out in a group show due to her almost formulaic approach to the human body on
canvas. The faces are modeled with light and shade, but the bodies and background
are specifically flat - basically outlined and then filled in with pools of
color and patterns. This compression of the space literally pushes the countenance
of the sitter into the viewer's face. Holloway, cognizant of this effect, notes,
" By mixing finely worked figures against flat fields of color and pattern,
the people are thrust to the foreground to be seen in an empathetic light."
Empathetic is an interesting choice because it suggests a sense of pity and
understanding of another's feeling and situation. The pity here is closely aligned
to the type one has for drivers license photographs. No one has a good picture
on their license so we can all commiserate on that matter together. This is
rather like what Holloway's portraits do with each other. Her style is part
expressionistic, part realistic and part caricature, distorting and exaggerating
one's face with bulging wrinkles, sunken eyes, unblinking stares, anthropomorphic
hair, and strange bluish and greenish casts. The effect is like looking in a
distorted fun-house mirror. Stretched and manipulated in a clownish manner,
the face is matched with brash, acidic background colors and dizzying, nightmarish
patterns, The sitters themselves seem aware of their distorted faces and carnival
settings because they smirk, grimace and stifle giggles as they gaze upon each
other. Her portraits are not particularly flattering, but they are definitely
compelling."
Jennifer
Ramirez Style Magazine August 15, 2000
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