Experimental Sound Studio

May 15 - July 5
Audible Gallery at ESS
5925 N. Ravenswood

Opening reception: May 15, 6 - 9pm.  Special guest performance by Guillermo Gregorio at 7.

Throughout his career as an artist, Fred Holland has been unflinching in his confrontation of political and social themes. Yet, as strong as the polemics that he engages may be, it’s his commitment to material and form that makes his work stand out from practitioners of so-called “political art.” When one encounters the immediate topical ironies in his work, the reaction is not “I get it,” but rather “Now where’s he taking me?” The result is that although his initial message may be clear, it’s the viewer’s physical encounter with the work that drives the iconoclastic subject matter even deeper both into one’s consciousness and into the less dialectical recesses of the psyche.

Golden Splinters is an attempt to illuminate the artist’s perceptions of a broken healthcare system. The ineffectual crutch stands as a metaphor for the larger failings of a country that views health care as privilege instead of a basic human right, and where a medical event can lead to bankruptcy and ruin.

Fredrick Holland
Fred Holland was born in Chicago and raised in the Rogers Park neighborhood. He attended the University of Illinois Chicago campus and graduated in 1976 with a B.A. in Design. He has exhibited in both commercial and non-profit galleries in Chicago, New York and Seattle since 1978 and has received grants from both the Illinois Art Council and the City of Chicago. He has been employed as a taxi driver, tile setter, carpenter, plasterer, bartender, house painter and has been teaching in the First Year Program at the School of the Art Institute since 1995. His life and work have been aided and inspired by his partner of 30 years Lois Grimm.

Golden Splinters was curated by Lou Mallozzi for Audible Gallery at ESS.