Artist Highlight: Moira Holohan
Meet Moira Holohan, multi-disciplinary artist whose practice seeks to evoke poetic tensions around history, contemporary culture, and her personal experiences. Moira’s work spans textile, video, painting, and printmaking, often blending figuration, abstraction, and hints of absurd humor in a subtle nod to the New York avant-garde scene of the 40s and 50s. In balancing intuitive and systematic processes of making, she creates multi-layered conversations within the artwork.
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Can You Tell Us About Your Artistic Practice?
I use a multi-disciplinary approach to evoke poetic tensions in questions regarding history, contemporary culture, and personal contexts, using hints of figuration and absurd humor throughout. The non-objective component of my work is rooted in the New York avant-garde of the 40s and 50s, creating multi-layered conversations that alternate between abstract and figurative images while pushing dynamic gestures. I actively relate their signature marks and ideas with my own contemporary signifiers.
My work employs textile, video, painting and printmaking as key mediums related to drawing. These abstract constructs oscillate between fast and slow tempos, creating a balance between intuitive and systematic processes. Chroma green and its function in the video is an essential signifier for substitution and a temporal multi-layered transition between weaving, painting, drawing, and videos.
Moira Holohan, Headbanger. Photo courtesy of the Artist and Emerson Dorsch Gallery. Photo by Francesco Casale. 2024.
Tell Us About A Personal Artistic Project Or Body Of Work That You Are Currently Excited About.
I am excited to have my second solo exhibition, Ergo Argot, at Emerson Dorsch Gallery, open now through June 8th. Ergo Argot features a new flipbook animation video called Headbanger. Headbanger became the impetus for a select series of 6 animated stills I reproduced by hand in textile format, creating a series called Head Bang. Another part of the exhibition is a series of textiles and a video that reference Morse Code and Robert Motherwell. This part of the exhibition will travel to the Zillman Art Museum University of Maine for an opening in September 2024.
Tell Us About How You Have Developed As An Artist Since You Began Working At Bakehouse.
Moira Holohan, GLIMPSE. Photo courtesy of the Artist and Emerson Dorsch Gallery. Photo by Francesco Casale. 2024.
Since becoming a part of the Bakehouse art community, my studio and professional practices have experienced significant growth, thanks to the valuable network opportunities that have connected me with community leaders, collectors, and curators. In 2021, Emerson Dorsch Gallery approached me after an Open Studios event, offering me the opportunity to exhibit with them. Since then, I have held two solo exhibitions and participated in their activations at Untitled Art Miami Beach. I recently received the Miami Individual Artists (MIA) Stipend in 2023 and 2022.
This past summer, I participated in two artist residencies, La Maldita Estampa in Barcelona and Cal Gras in Avinyó (Catalonia, Spain). I received the Access Grant to help fund my art residency at La Maldita Estampa. In 2022, I received the South Florida Cultural Consortium accompanied by a group exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami. Recent acquisitions include: Miami-Dade Art in Public Places Trust, Francie Bishop Good and David Horvitz and El Espacio 23, Jorge M. Pérez Collection.
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Artist Bio:
Moira Holohan received a MFA Degree at Hunter College, NY and a BA at Bard College, NY.
She recently received the Miami Individual Artists (MIA) Stipend in 2023 and 2022. This past summer, Holohan participated in two artist residencies, La Maldita Estampa in Barcelona and Cal Gras in Avinyó (Catalonia, Spain). She received the Access Grant to help fund her art residency at La Maldita Estampa. Holohan is a resident artist at the Bakehouse Art Complex, Miami, FL, and is represented by the Emerson Dorsch Gallery, Miami. Public and Private collections include Miami-Dade Art in Public Places Trust, Francie Bishop Good and David Horvitz and El Espacio 23, Jorge M. Pérez Collection.
Select solo and two-person exhibitions include Dits and Dahs (2024), Zillman Museum, Bangor, ME; Ergo Argot (2024), Emerson Dorsch Gallery, Glimpse (2021), Emerson Dorsch Gallery, Miami, FL; Green (2019), Miami Beach Botanical Garden, Miami, FL; Subsurface (2019), Annex Art, Castine, ME.
Select group exhibitions include Untitled Art Fair, Emerson Dorsch Booth, Miami Beach, FL; SFCC exhibition, Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, Miami, FL; Blueprint, BridgeRed, Miami, FL; A Thread of Execution, Dimensions Variable, Miami, FL; Aesthetics & Values, FIU Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL; Screen Dance Miami, Perez Art Museum, Miami, FL; Flow State: Thisishappening, Emerson Dorsch Gallery, Miami, FL; Pattern State: Fringe Project, Miami, FL; Cortaditos, MDC Museum of Art & Design, Miami, FL; New Work Miami 2013, Perez Art Museum Miami, Miami, FL; Practices Remain, Regina Rex, Queens, NY; DCG 2012, David Castillo Gallery, Miami, FL; Practices Remain, Norwegian Wood Building, Miami FL; Split, General Practice, Miami, FL; Re-Framing the Feminine, Girls Club Web Project, Fort Lauderdale, FL; Sky/water, de la Cruz Collection Contemporary Art Space, Miami, FL. Holohan co-founded Meetinghouse, an innovative exhibition space in downtown Miami that brought together art, design, and architecture disciplines. Between 2015 and 2018, she served as the Director of Art for Meetinghouse, curating exhibitions and developing programming.