Lola Collins
Raw
curated by Tiva Baloi
(Deconstructed) Bee in my Hair
2020
acrylic on canvas
24 x 18 in.
2020
acrylic on canvas
24 x 18 in.
Definitions of the adjective “Raw”:
Raw is Lola Collins' first solo exhibition, presenting a body of work produced in the last three years. Comprising ten abstract paintings, Raw offers viewers an insight into the artist’s inner world. Originally from Washington, DC, Collins has immersed herself in a deeply personal and private practice in San Francisco. Much of the work on view was created during quarantine, when Collins found her innermost moods outpouring on paper and canvas. The selected paintings are intimate expressions of Collins’ interior realm.
Browsing through Raw feels akin to probing a freshly healed abrasion, or peeking into the insides of an open wound. The paintings elicit a myriad of feelings, from tender pleasure to pangs of pain, and all of the nuances between, as reflected in their titles. Different layers of Collins’ emotional landscape are peeled back and revealed in each work through stark, deliberate strokes, and lurid slashes of color. From a sense of calm, to ecstasy, revulsion, and bittersweet heartache; everything Collins feels is exposed in vivid acrylics.
- (of materials) fresh; in a natural state
- (of information) not analyzed or processed for use
- (of the body) painfully exposed or inflamed; wounded
- (of an emotion or quality) strong and undisguised
- (of a person) new to an activity or profession
Raw is Lola Collins' first solo exhibition, presenting a body of work produced in the last three years. Comprising ten abstract paintings, Raw offers viewers an insight into the artist’s inner world. Originally from Washington, DC, Collins has immersed herself in a deeply personal and private practice in San Francisco. Much of the work on view was created during quarantine, when Collins found her innermost moods outpouring on paper and canvas. The selected paintings are intimate expressions of Collins’ interior realm.
Browsing through Raw feels akin to probing a freshly healed abrasion, or peeking into the insides of an open wound. The paintings elicit a myriad of feelings, from tender pleasure to pangs of pain, and all of the nuances between, as reflected in their titles. Different layers of Collins’ emotional landscape are peeled back and revealed in each work through stark, deliberate strokes, and lurid slashes of color. From a sense of calm, to ecstasy, revulsion, and bittersweet heartache; everything Collins feels is exposed in vivid acrylics.
Dancing Man
2020
acrylic on canvas
24 x 18 in.
2020
acrylic on canvas
24 x 18 in.
For D. He didn’t want it, We Don’t Talk Anymore, and I think I loved Him
2020
acrylic on paper
24 x 18 in.
2020
acrylic on paper
24 x 18 in.
In her practice, Collins paints first and thinks later. She makes sense of her work by looking to her art for answers after their creation. This process offers the artist the opportunity to unpack emotions that are difficult to articulate. With Raw, viewers are given the opportunity to join in the anatomizing of Collins’ art.
Collins offers a refreshing take on the abstract, informed by intuitive senses and personal immersion in practice. Adding her voice to a litany of Black women abstract painters, such as Howardena Pindell, Alma Thomas, Mary Lovelace O’Neal, and Betty Blayton, Collins is concerned with understanding—and contextualizing—her visual abstractions as expressions of Black female subjectivity.
Collins offers a refreshing take on the abstract, informed by intuitive senses and personal immersion in practice. Adding her voice to a litany of Black women abstract painters, such as Howardena Pindell, Alma Thomas, Mary Lovelace O’Neal, and Betty Blayton, Collins is concerned with understanding—and contextualizing—her visual abstractions as expressions of Black female subjectivity.
Repulsion
2021
acrylic on paper
24 x 18 in.
2021
acrylic on paper
24 x 18 in.
Self Sabotage2020
acrylic on paper
24 x 18 in.
Self Sabotage Too...2021
acrylic on paper
24 x 18 in.
Untitled
2021
acrylic on paper
24 x 18 in.
2021
acrylic on paper
24 x 18 in.
To Block2020
acrylic on paper
24 x 18 in.
Me doing a cannonball/I explode when I touch water
2020
acrylic on paper
24 x 18 in.
Winner, winner, Chicken Dinner
2019
acrylic on paper
24 x 18 in.
2019
acrylic on paper
24 x 18 in.
For inquiries, please contact: info@straightlick.com
Artist: Lola Collins ︎
Curator: Tiva Baloi ︎