ALLYSON HOLLINGSWORTH
Photographs
September 17 – October 29, 2005
Opening Reception Saturday, September 17, 6 – 8pm
The Michael Kohn Gallery is pleased to present new photographs by Allyson Hollingsworth. This is the
artist’s second one-person show at the Michael Kohn Gallery. Comprised of images created over the last
three years, the exhibition will feature small scale, black and
white photographs often depicting narratives which include
the artist herself. In these images Hollingsworth lends the
conventions of Romantic nineteenth-century paintings to
her photographic work and the result is a sometimes eerie,
but always emotionally charged work of art. Imagery includes
the artist herself posed in front of a group of trees
illuminated only by the headlights of an automobile. Or as in
other pieces, figures inhabit domestic settings, cast in deep
shadow, where all narrative appears to be at a standstill.
In October 2005, “SHOP GIRL,” the new film based upon
the book of the same title by Steve Martin will be released.
Starring Steve Martin and Clare Danes, the central figure
played by Danes is based upon the photographer Allyson
Hollingsworth and her work. Acting as a consultant on the
film, Hollingsworth and her drawings and photographs
prominently appear in the movie. The film portrays the
partial accumulation of life events that defines a young artist,
namely, Hollingsworth.
Commenting articulately about her work, Hollingsworth
writes about her photographs:
“One night I dreamt I was haunting my own life. The series
A Night There Lay the Days Between was borne of that dream.
The idea of being “asleep” during the day while being really
“awake” at night, and the importance of the night
triumphing over day, as in the Emily Dickenson poem from which the title is taken, is central to the theme
of these photographs…These series of photographs explore a theme that runs throughout my entire body
of work – that of a personal mythology constructed from memory coupled with desire.”
Allyson Hollingsworth received a Master of Arts degree from Cal Arts, and lives and works in San
Francisco. For further information please contact Alex Couri at [email protected].
Please click here to read New York Times article about the artist
