Lonnie Holley: Exhibit
Artist Exhibit: March 3-April 2, 2023 // Downtown Gallery during Big Ears 2023 // Sponsored and hosted by the Downtown Gallery
Lonnie Holley’s life and work read as a narrative retelling of Black American history—the residual effects of the Jim Crow era, the triumphs of the Civil Rights movement, and the struggles with false narratives around class mobility and race. Holley’s multidisciplinary practice seeks to educate viewers as a means of remedying the historical amnesia surrounding these topics. Rooting himself in the events of the past, the artist moves into the future—presenting synesthetic, multimedia work that visually engages its viewers with unique found objects and intricate motifs to subsequently inform on topics such as inequity and history as memory. Known throughout the art world for his found-object sculptures, paintings, and installations, Lonnie Holley gained a new audience when he started releasing and performing his music during the 2010s.
The UT Downtown Gallery is pleased to present a selection of recent works on paper, sculpture, paintings, and short films. Throughout the exhibition, we will be screening I Snuck Off the Slave Ship, I Went A Little Too Far (Mistreating Love), and I Woke Up… This exhibition is in collaboration with Knoxville’s Big Ears Music Festival, where Holley will be performing at the end of March. The UT Downtown Gallery is proud to be a free Big Ears Festival venue.