“This is a group of artists who obviously enjoy the challenge of playing with form, texture, color and light and who don’t shy away from being hyper-attentive to surface," enthuses the critically acclaimed painter Loie Hollowell, who is on the precipice of curating her first show at Grimm in Amsterdam. It’s definitely time to pay attention when an artist like Hollowell, whose recent bodies of work are so unique, emerges on the contemporary art world stage and curates a show. Her ability to merge abstract and figurative elements into an almost surreal modernist aesthetic is at the vanguard of a group of like-minded painters who work with texture and material in original ways.

Loie Hollowell Boob Wheel 2020
Romancing the Surface
is a group exhibition curated by Hollowell and on view at Grimm Gallery in Amsterdam across their two locations from January 10 through March 1, 2021. Hollowell’s sharp curatorial eye sought out artists including Angela Heisch, Daniel Sinsel, Louise Giovanelli, Sascha Braunig, Matthew Ronay, Camille Henrot, Lui Shtini, Thaddeus Mosley and, of course, herself, who tell stories but also excel in the process of making. Their lively cross pollination results in a rich and lively exchange between abstract and figurative artists that enlarges and engages the entire art world, painters and viewers alike. "The work in Romancing the Surface creates an interesting dialogue with one another, allowing for multiple influences and styles to converge and play off each other,” Hollowell said to us. “Every artist in the exhibition approaches their process differently yet they all consider the sensorial nature of materiality to hold great significance in their work.” —Evan Pricco