In The onlooker (2007), Holz’s multilayered painting technique creates an illusionistic perception of depth while stimulating our sense of touch. Peering into the composition with us is a transparent figure, like an apparition through whom we see the vibrant colors, lines, and shapes of the painting refracted. Only the edge of the figure’s face is solidly rendered and their gaze is hidden from the viewer. The figure simultaneously blends into and pushes against the surrounding ground. Holz (b. 1972, Minneapolis, MN; lives and works in Nebraska) received his M.F.A. in 2001 from the University at Albany, Albany, NY, and is a professor at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Lincoln, NE. His work is in the collections of several university museums throughout the country.
 
–Introphantasm

Artist Statement:
This painting was part of a series I did based on video stills of wrestlers and mixed martial arts. I had spent the greater part of a decade making portraits and I was interested in amplifying the abstraction in each work, having less of a depiction of a figure. In this particular painting, we have the back of a head witnessing a fight.  

 

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