My father-in-law, Ken Holder, is an amazing painter who has produced a monumental body of work over the course of more than five decades. His œuvre spans many styles but I think of him as a prolific painter of landscapes—the landscapes of the American West, a region which is deeply embedded in his DNA (he grew up in rural Texas and taught painting for many years in the midwest), and the landscapes of the interior, particularly the dream-like world of the artist, which he has rendered with fantastical insight. His paintings often combine the two realms to produce effects that are both epic and intimate, and they’ve been collected by museums, public institutions and private collectors. You can see a selection of some of the more significant of them here.
After a devastating flood in his studio recently, Ken has decided that it’s time to downsize his operation and to find new homes for the many, many works that he’s stored there for years (thankfully, most of his pieces were undamaged). A huge retrospective of his career is currently on exhibition in Illinois, where he lives. This video that my sister-in-law shot of the gallery space during preparation for the show does a reasonable job of approximating the impact of some the larger works.
Find out more at holderretrospective.com. All of the works are on sale now, many at affordable prices.
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