Exhibitions
Holland Cunningham | Ever Seen Such a Beautiful Day…
Opening reception: May 7th, 2025
Location: 195 Chrystie Street, New York, NY 10002
Hours: Monday – Friday, 10 am – 6 pm, Saturday 12-5 pm & Sunday by appointment
Contact: caroline@voltzclarke.com | 917.292.6921
Press Release
Voltz Clarke Gallery is pleased to present Ever Seen Such a Beautiful Day…, a solo-exhibition by Holland Cunningham.
In 1964 John Cheever wrote a short story entitled “The Swimmer” and in 1968 a movie with the same title starring Burt Lancaster was released. It is a bizarre odyssey through upper middle class suburbia, a somewhat trapped and small world where one is shunned if one doesn’t play the game. On the surface, Ned Merrill, the title character, embarks on a journey swimming from pool to pool through the suburbs to his own idyllic home at the other end of the county where his wife and daughters are waiting. However what starts as a fun adventure turns into a journey of darkness and the reality of Ned’s life. Inspired by the satire of suburban life and the darkness within, I set out to make work that speaks to this theme. Each pool that Ned attempts to swim represents a memory or part of his past from which he is running. In the beginning he is oblivious to what is really happening. Amidst the trail of parties and characters he encounters, his demise is slowly revealed. What appears on the surface is in fact not at all the reality. The pools, parties, and characters might represent an escape route but in fact there is no escape. His past cannot be washed away and slowly and painfully he starts to realize this, especially when he reaches the end of his journey only to find an abandoned property with no sign of life at all; only a broken house and an overgrown tennis court where he had imagined he would find his girls playing tennis in the summer sun. All that is left is the memory of what had been.
– Holland Cunningham
Born in Southwestern Virginia, Holland Cunningham lives in New York and London with studios in Manhattan, Quogue, and London. Cunningham employs her practice of utilizing found photography as this new selection of works builds upon the film stills and picturesque scenes from The Swimmer. The American painter graduated from the University of Virginia and her academic journey has extended through the Art Students League, the National Academy of Art and Design, and the New York School of the Arts. She has been recognized with significant residencies, including the Bau Institute in Italy and a fellowship at the American Academy in Rome. As both observer and protagonist, Cunningham captures the dynamic essence of life's continuous flow.
Selected Works
STOP MOTION
Amidst the frenzy, STOP MOTION invites moments of stillness and contemplation. The artists encourage meaningful dialogue with each piece and invite introspection. Each creator explores diverse narratives and unique perspectives.
Holland Cunningham | Come Closer
Voltz Clarke Gallery is pleased to present Come Closer, a comprehensive solo exhibition featuring new works by artist Holland Cunningham.
Daniel Adenitan and Holland Cunningham on PLATFORM
PLATFORM is the e-commerce destination for new works by today’s most sought-after contemporary artists. At the beginning of each month, PLATFORM releases a new limited-time selection of artworks to buy now, selected in partnership with David Zwirner and sourced from the country’s most exciting independent galleries.
Daniel Adenitan
Holland Cunningham
Holland Cunningham | Body Language
Opening Reception: December 2nd, 2020, 2-8 pm
Gallery Location: 195 Chrystie Street, New York, NY 10002
Hours: Monday – Friday, 10 am–6 pm, Saturday noon–6 pm and by appointment
Contact Info: saraht@voltzclarke.com, 917.292.6921, voltzclarke.com
Voltz Clarke Gallery is pleased to present Body Language by Holland Cunningham. The exhibition will be on view from December 2nd through December 31st, 2020.
“Holland Cunningham uses various materials from oil paint to water-based media, photography and animation. Her depictions are rooted in collected memories captured in old photographs she finds and collects. The figures in Cunningham’s paintings are reconceived, reactivated and given a new perspective by the artist. The viewer of her works becomes an active participant filling in the gaps of the imagined narrative. The women Cunningham depicts are present, but enigmatic, assured in their actions, but lost somewhere in distant time. They require our attention and invite us to enter their world, linger there and imagine what they are thinking or who they might be.”
~Natasha Schlesinger, curator and founder of ArtMuse
Cunningham is an avid collector of discarded photography that she sees not as images frozen in time, but as something that is still happening.
The found photography and slides that inspire her become the starting point for her figurative oil paintings. Cunningham is interested in taking the memories of others found in the print details of photographs and creating new associations through her own ideas and imagination. The individual works Cunningham makes are fragments of a narrative that she continues to change and develop as she adds new pieces. In essence, she intends to create a new story formed from the lives and moments of others. Holland Cunningham is a spectator as well as the protagonist and player in the scene or moment captured.
Holland B. Cunningham was born in Roanoke, Virginia in 1967 and educated at the University of Virginia where she studied art history and studio art. She continued her studies at the Art Students League and National Academy of Art and Design. She was a resident at the Bau Institute in Puglia, Italy the summer of 2012. She currently resides and works in New York City.
Holland Cunningham | Chrystie Project
On View: April – May 2016
Location: Voltz Clarke Gallery, 141 East 62nd Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10065
Holland Cunningham, Pool , Oil and Collage on Duralar Paper, 31x31 Inches
Voltz Clarke gallery is pleased to present a soloexhibition of recent paintings from multimedia artist, Holland Cunningham (American).
In an exhibit of new work featuring figurative paintings and video installation, Cunningham investigates the everevolving narrative of collective experience. Each of her figurations are subject to perpetual change, by which the creation of a new story is formed from the lives of her viewers. She is interested in the intimacy of the fleeting nature of time and how these moments hold a universal sensibility. This series affirms her strong inclination towards balance and color, and the ephemeral nature of time. Through a dialectical play of transitory moments, Cunningham shares in the livelihood of the work through universal experience, to thereby create a new story.
Inspired by the furtive strokes of Abstract Expressionism, Holland Cunningham’s oeuvre is characterized by classical compositions that speak to the artist’s own passion for plein air painting. As an avid collector of discarded photography from which she draws her inspiration, Cunningham sees these not as images frozen in time, but as something that is still happening. She is a spectator as well as a protagonist and player in the scene or moment captured.
Cunningham was born in Roanoke, Virginia in 1967 and educated at the University of Virginia where she studied art history and studio art. She continued her studies at the Art Students League and National Academy of Art and Design and at the Bau Institute in Puglia, Italy. She currently resides and works in New York City.
The exhibition will run April – May 2016.
For more information please contact info@voltzclarke.com
