Carli Holcomb

September 8 – November 12, 2017

For After Dark, Wyoming-based sculptor Carli Holcomb has made an exhibition that considers origin stories and the fluid relationship between the macro and the micro by examining such themes as autobiography, memory, cosmology, landscape and space. Conceptually the solo exhibition makes broader allusions to land art from the late 1960s and environmental politics that began with Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962). While deftly weaving back and forth between these complex themes, Holcomb pairs synthetic and natural materials to address the intersection between people and a place.

With this new work, she aims to provide visitors with a sense of mystery that mimics the time “after dark” when, as she describes it, “the stars come out and there is an absolute sense of awe and magic.” Most of the work draws from her time spent outdoors—which began while a young child growing up in Wyoming—backpacking in the Wind River Mountain Range, walking along the James River bank, observing a total solar eclipse or rafting down the Green River. Yet Holcomb also examines her dislocated experiences with unfamiliar terrain known only through topographic maps or satellite images. These pairings of familiar/unfamiliar, synthetic/manmade, public/private, terrestrial/celestial, real/manipulated, analogue/digital are ambiguous relationships that Holcomb sets up for visitors to consider.

Represented by the Quirk Hotel and Gallery in Richmond, Holcomb was a Quirk+VisArts artist-in-residence in 2016. She has exhibited her work in many group shows, including exhibitions at LIGHT art + design in Chapel Hill, N.C.; the Jacksonville Center for the Arts in Floyd, V.a.; and Mildred’s Lane in Narrowsburg, N.Y. Her work appeared on the cover of Metalsmith magazine in 2016.

Holcomb holds an Associates of Arts from Casper College in Casper, Wyo., a B.F.A. in fine art with a specialization in metals from the University of Wyoming and an M.F.A. in craft and material studies from Virginia Commonwealth University. This fall she will be a professor at Casper College in the Visual Arts Department where she will be head of the sculpture and metalsmithing concentration.

Carli Holcomb: After Dark from Visual Arts Center of Richmond on Vimeo.