Miranda Holmes

BIO

Miranda Holmes is an artist and curator living in Columbus, Ohio. She received her M.F.A. from The Ohio State University in 2022, and in 2017, Holmes was granted a Fulbright Research Scholarship to pursue her practice at the Universität der Künste in Berlin, Germany. Holmes has had solo shows in Berlin at Raum für Sichtbarkeit and at Das Giftraum. Her work was published in I Like Your Work Podcast’s Spring catalogue in 2022 and in Edition #149 of New American Paintings. She has participated in multiple group shows, including at Olympia Gallery in New York, NY, Urban Arts Space in Columbus, OH, and Dream Clinic Project Space in Columbus, OH. Holmes has received various awards, including the Ellen Battel Stoeckel award to attend the Yale Norfolk Summer School of Art in 2016, a University Fellowship at The Ohio State University, and multiple Greater Columbus Arts Council Grants. Holmes has attended residencies at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, CO and GlogauAIR in Berlin. She co-organizes Dream Clinic Project Space, an artist-run space in Columbus, Ohio, where she has curated 2 group shows. Next year, she will return to Berlin under a 10-month DAAD Fellowship in the Arts. She will present solo shows at Vorfluter in Berlin, Germany and at DePauw University in Greencastle, IN, in 2024.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My figurative paintings and drawings embrace expansive notions of identity via representations of embodied experiences. By emphasizing the overlap of figures and objects, my work speculates on how we shape one another and the places we inhabit over time. Using transparent films of paint, I layer the shapes of everyday objects within figures, entangling them with the cups they hold, the chairs they sit in, the people they listen to as they lay in bed. By building up my surfaces with layers of acrylic paint, the paintings become textured with previous marks like embedded memories. I respond to these marks as I layer oil paint, depicting people staining into one another as they kiss or argue, connect or withhold. My work destabilizes the Self/Other binary, envisioning identity as built from accumulations of both positions. My practice aims to bridge representation and identity-based work with abstraction and wonder.

Interview with Miranda Holmes

Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you became interested in becoming an artist? 

I grew up mostly in State College and drew at home all the time as a kid. Mostly I drew characters that I would make up and assign stories to – likes, dislikes, who was in their family… I liked thinking about their personalities and how they interacted with one another. Art class was one of my favorites growing up, and during my last couple years in high school I started thinking more seriously about becoming an artist. In college, I was split between pursuing learning foreign languages and working in translation or being an artist, but eventually art won out – I had great professors at Penn State during my undergrad who helped me see it was possible.  

Can you tell us about some of your most memorable early influences?

One of my art teachers had our class sit with a Joan Mitchell painting for about 10 minutes and just look. I remember being amazed at how an awareness of a painting can open up and shift with time. 

Where are you currently based and what brought you there? Are there any aspects of this specific location or community that have inspired your work? 

Right now I’m between Columbus, OH and Berlin, Germany. I came to Columbus for grad school at Ohio State in 2019, and I was teaching as an adjunct there this year. I’m currently in Berlin on a DAAD Postgraduate Scholarship in the Arts – a program that includes a 10-month visa and a stipend to make my work. I’m thrilled to be back – I spent 2 years here between undergrad and grad school. 

What is your studio space like? What makes your space unique to you? 

My studio space in Columbus was in a garage that I shared with a few other folks. In the garage was this small space that was converted into a gallery called Dream Clinic Project Space. We put on group and solo shows there of local and national artists’ work. I loved being a part of an artist-run space – as an artist you face a lot of rejection so it feels great to be able to say to someone else “we like your work, let’s bring your work here”. It also gave me the opportunity to curate shows and experience organizing everything that goes into a group show from inviting artists, to sharpening a point of view, to receiving and installing work, etc. 

I’m still in the process of setting up my studio in Berlin! 

What is a typical day like? If you don't have a typical day, what is an ideal day? Do you work in large chunks of time, or throughout the day?

An ideal day is one where I have few obligations and I can dedicate the whole day in the studio. I like to go on a run in the morning – if I’m lucky I can enter a flow state which can help me make connections in my work. Then I’ll head to the studio with my lunch and snacks for the day so I don’t have to leave if I don’t want to. 

What gets you in a creative groove or flow? Is there anything that interrupts your creative energy?

I like to start off my studio day with drawing. Sometimes I’ll work on the floor making charcoal drawings that use my whole body and sometimes I’ll work in a sketchbook, especially if I’m testing out changes I want to make in a painting. Drawing takes the pressure off and it reminds me I can go anywhere with my work, that I don’t have to stick to one theme or way of working.

How do you maintain momentum in your practice? Is there anything that hinders or helps your focus? 

Building a habit of going to the studio releases the pressure of deciding whether or not to go – I just go! Starting with drawing and then moving to painting creates this rhythm for me, and if I get stuck in a painting, I can go back to drawing and let whatever happen. This openness has helped me be brave and try new moves in my work. Lately if I’m not happy with a painting I’ll cover large sections in white paint and do something different. The underlying ridges from the painting create this texture that creates a sense of the painting having a history. Since my work explores memory, I think about how the paintings have lived a life by going through these different stages. If the painting is too smooth and there aren’t any weird bumps on the surface I’m like, this painting needs some more life experience, and I’ll keep building up the surface. Not being too precious with any section of a painting helps me move forward in the painting. 

Being on my phone too much gets in the way – besides that, not having my studio snacks!   

What medium/media are you working in right now? What draws you to this particular material or method? 

I work mostly in painting and drawing although sometimes I do installations. I typically build up my painting surfaces with acrylic paint before I move to oil paint on top. I’ve been mixing cold wax and Galkyd gel into my oil paint – the cold wax creates a gritty, matte surface and the gel helps speed the drying time. The textured surface makes a super smooth brushstroke almost impossible, so the edges of my subject matter kind of “buzz” next to each another. 

Can you walk us through your overall process in making your current work? Does drawing play a role in your process?        

Typically I make drawings based off of photos. I’ll redraw the same person, object, or environment until I land on something that I want to make into a painting. Then I’ll play around with color using colored pencils or pastel until I find a limited palette that feels related to the subject matter or mood. Color can always change as I’m making the painting, and as I mentioned before, sometimes entire sections will completely change if the painting isn’t working. 

What is exciting about your process currently?

I’m excited about the possibilities of layering color on top of one another so that the edges of the underlying shape or line kind of stay visible. To me, this feels related to the way we can witness ourselves and the people around us change over time. We carry all the previous “versions” of ourselves with us even though on the surface we present as just one person.   

Can you talk about some of the ongoing interests, imagery, and concepts that have informed your process and body of work over time? How do you anticipate your work progressing in the future?

I’ve always been interested in how people are shaped by their environments and the people around them. For years my goal was to make feminist paintings – paintings that reflected my experience of growing an awareness of the world and its various social hierarchies. My goal was to critique these hierarchies while also keeping in mind how I played into them. 

The work I make now is still feminist but it doesn’t make feminism and critique the end goal. I trust that the decisions I make around depicting people, environments, and objects, knowing that these things all shape one another, are made from my feminist values which include questioning hierarchy and appearances. 

Do you pursue any collaborations, projects, or careers in addition to your studio practice? If so, can you tell us more about those projects, and are there connections between your studio practice and these endeavors? 

Dream Clinic Project Space, the artist run space I mentioned before, is the largest collaborative effort I’ve been a part of! 

Have you had any epiphanies recently that have changed the course of your work or caused you to shift directions?

My undergrad painting professor, Helen O’Leary, said “a painting creates its own logic”. I always understood that as “I get to make my own rules” but recently I also started seeing it as the painting having agency – the painting is creating its own world, and I’m the one guiding it. 

Can you share some of your recent influences? Are there specific works—from visual art, literature, film, or music — that are important to you?

I read James Bridle’s book, Ways of Being, this summer and I’ve been thinking about it a lot in the studio lately. They write about how everything from animals to plants to people all have different intelligences based on their understanding of the world. I also found Karen Baras’ work through that book – she’s a physicist and feminist who considers matter not as discreet entities but as a series of “intra-actions” between atoms continually clinging to and releasing one another. This has influenced how I paint edges: I want things to kind of hum next to one another as if there was something happening as a hand meets a cup. To me this implicates our identities – they’re not fixed, they’re always on the move.  

Anne Truitt’s Daybook has also been a meaningful read to me. 

Can you elaborate on a recent work of yours, and tell us the story of how it came to be? 

My painting, Jane’s Sandwich, was inspired by Jane Hirschfield’s poem, My Proteins. In it, she wonders how much of her has become a sandwich and how much the sandwich has become her after she eats one. The figures in my paintings overlap with sandwiches – the one on the left is still whole, still on the table, and the one on the right is mixed up in the figure’s stomach. It goes back to the idea of the ridiculousness of a fixed identity.  

Have you overcome any memorable roadblocks or struggles in your practice that you could share with us? 

I am still working on allowing myself to go through the ebbs and flows of a studio day. I used to get frustrated about not having a great day in the studio. Now I know that I’ll just be back the next day, or soon, so I can put less pressure on myself. That’s why showing up on a consistent basis has worked well for me. 

Who are some contemporary artists you’re excited about? Is there a recent exhibition that stood out to you?

Clare Grill’s show at Derek Eller this summer was so beautiful. Looking at her work has grown my understanding of touch. I also love how Esteban Cabeza de Baca thinks about layering and time in painting. 

Do you have any tips or advice that someone has shared with you that you have found particularly helpful? 

“Show up” – to the studio, to openings, to friends’ events, for yourself… just be around, be present. 

What are you working on in the studio right now? What’s coming up next for you?

I’m working on a series of works that will be at Vorfluter gallery in Berlin in May-June. I’ll be creating a large-scale installation in their front window and I’ll show some paintings.

To find out more about Miranda Holmes check out her website and Instagram.