Kymber Holt: AMO, Amanda M.
Obering Contemporary Arts •
Los Angeles, California
In Kymber Holt’s first one-person
exhibition devoted solely to her painting and drawing, she presented an
impressively cohesive body of work that was both mesmerizing in its beauty
and psychologically challenging in its complexity. The majority of works
in this show were executed as intricately patterned layers of oil and
alkyd paint applied to panel. Holt’s elaborate paintings consist
of imagery loosely fashioned after varying vintage textile motifs dating
originally from the 13th to 19th centuries. In drawing upon the source
of reference, she invents her own lavish festoonery gone awry. Frequently
interspersed in many of the works, amidst the delicately rendered flowers
and garlands, are depictions of genitalia, most prevalently in the form
of arcing, blue-balled penises.
In her sculptural and performance work which chronologically precede these
paintings, Holt focused heavily on exploring regions of eroticism and
gender. Her “twining” sculptures (which have also functioned
as props in her performance and photography pieces) are painstakingly
woven three-dimensional forms of disembodied vaginas, penises, breasts,
lips, buttocks, and other erogenous zones. The obvious intensity of labor
required in the fabrication of Holt’s twinings is similarly evidenced
in the paintings on view here, as is an underlying preoccupation with
issues of sexuality and desire. The level of control and discipline demanded
by Holt’s meticulousness of process adds an ironic twist to her work
given that its subject is, to a great extent, symbolic of the pursual
and attainment of sexual pleasure. The resulting works embody contrasting
expressions of restrictive, repetitive self absorption and abundant ribaldry
and indulgence. Witnessing the simultaneity of these divergent themes,
one encounters a heightened sensory experience that is ecstatic and satisfying
while taut with restraint.
The paintings exhibited in the show were split into four different areas,
grouped together according to size and media. Spaciously aligned on a
single wall were the three largest panel paintings (all untitled and sized
at 46 x 32 inches). The decorative elements of these works varied in both
coloration and design. Each painting displayed a repetitively patterned
field rich with detail that at various junctures mutates, or disintegrates
into unexpected elements of composition and content. In this approach,
Holt deftly juxtaposes notions of evolution and cycles of Nature in both
organic and artificial terms, exemplifying the manifold layers of existence
from a deeply personal perspective.
In the center of the gallery, set up like a corridor, hung a group of
much smaller paintings (uniformly 6 x 6 inches) lined up in single rows
on facing walls. Principally these works had been done in the same manner
as the larger paintings, although they were characterized by a more condensed
approach. Here again each individual piece contains a consistent set of
decorative embellishments in varying forms of frills, flowers, shapes,
and hues, which rupture and transmogrify unpredictably in an orgiastic
frenzy of dazzling, lush color and fluid gestural movement. As though
fragments lifted from Victorian parlor walls, theses paintings become
vehicles for the impulse of lust—where flourishes of filigree reveal
meanderings of desire, like a crack in the ceiling that captures the imagination
of a wandering glance.
Against the rear wall of the gallery space hung a separate group of small
drawings done in colored pencil and marker, made directly on found wallpaper
fragments. This assortment of works even more explicitly depicted male
and female genitalia entwined with different decorative elements inherent
to the paper’s surface. The appearance of these pieces was echoed
in a large scale, floor-to-ceiling installation piece entitled “Abloom,”
in which Holt applied wallpaper directly to the wall and then painted
on it, infusing it with images of colorful, flowering anatomical forms
bursting across the surface.
Although these paintings are rooted in decorative origins, referring to
them as being merely decorative themselves would be a faulty classification.
Holt has succeeded in conveying a profound degree of passion and emotional
complexity through a codex of ornamental markings, to make paintings that
are quietly refined, yet highly potent. The degree of commitment required
to produce such an intricate body of work is in itself impressive and
a testament to Holt’s devotion to her art. Kymber Holt’s accomplishment
in achieving this end is all the more remarkable given that this is her
first real foray into painting as a principal mode of expression. It will
be interesting to watch this natural skill and see where it leads her.
Jane Hart
Los Angeles, California
1995