For this show, Holly presents fiber and drawing based installations, assemblages and works on paper to reclaim the female body and bear witness to the spirit.  These works range in size from intimate pieces to larger immersive works.  Holly uses a variety of fabric and flexible drawing surfaces as her medium, applying the skills passed down to her from her mother, a talented seamstress.  Holly’s work memorializes her mother whom she lost to alcoholism and domestic violence.

The namesake work in the exhibition “Guardian of the Spirits” is a sewn patchwork of silk, organza, cellophane, and foil with transparencies that involve a kaleidoscope of images and memories.  Her process is to create a transparent base which she then sews, cuts and sews back together again.  Afterwards, she layers bloodlines or veins upon these surfaces using darker patterning so that it journeys through the metaphorical body of the work. This piece at once references the practice of cutting and starving oneself but also the power of mending and transforming.

Holly Wong was born in North Miami Beach FLA.  She was educated at the San Francisco Art Institute where she graduated with a Master of Fine Arts with a concentration in New Genres. Holly has participated in over 80 exhibitions including group shows at the de Young Museum, the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, and Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Art.  She is represented by SLATE Contemporary Gallery in Oakland, CA, ELLIO Fine Art in Houston, TX, and is a member of A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn, NY.  Holly lives and works in San Francisco, CA.

All works in the exhibition are provided courtesy of SLATE Contemporary Gallery, Oakland, CA.

Photo and video credit is to photographer Wes Magyar.