Lonnie B. Holley, For Every Woman I Have Seen Parts of Africa’s Dream in Her Honor, 1993, found objects, wire, stone, paint, and Plexiglas, 68 × 24 × 24 × inches. Gift of Randy Siegel, 2015.14.01. © Lonnie Holley / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Lonnie Holley makes visible the unseen forces that inform society and our lives through the visual arts and music. In For Every Woman I Have Seen Parts of Africa’s Dream in Her Honor, the self-taught artist connects women to larger themes of creation within a “mother universe.” Holley’s work honors Africa as a birthplace of humanity and recognizes the value of ancestral knowledge. Move around Holley’s sculpture to discover silhouettes in reclaimed wire and painted on recycled Plexiglas, combined with various found objects. The silhouettes and found objects personalize the work and give further credence to Holley’s idea that “each individual thing has its own reason for existing.”
— Lola Clairmont, former curatorial assistant
This work is currently on view in Intersections in American Art.
