Paddy Johnson, writing about Pace Gallery’s 2019 expansion and its inaugural shows, said: “Loie Hollowell’s abstract paintings of blobs have vibrant color going for them and that’s about it.” Johnson was, I think, grasping for ways to heap criticism on the gallery—which she describes in the same article as primarily attracting “young financial bros, excited old women with plastic surgery, financially motivated collectors and High Line tourists”—and Hollowell’s work simply got caught in the crossfire. The artist, for those unfamiliar, does not paint ‘blobs’ and her canvases’ vivid hues aren’t even the most enchanting things about them.

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What is so interesting about Hollowell’s work beyond color is how her paintings and pastel drawings seem to glow from within, casting their own painted light onto curves and mounds that anyone with a human body should feel some kinship with. Hollowell, whose work is very much rooted in the experience of physicality, isn’t particularly coy with her titles, so........

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