Hollis Brown Thornton

I work with the objects of my past, from pop culture to family photos, and fragment this imagery, similar to memory fragmentation. I erase the identities in family photos. I reproduce pieces of the past in markers, paint, and a printmaking process, in a balance of imprecision while attempting to maintain a level of control, similar to memory's attempts to reproduce events in an inherently flawed and personal way. Sometimes I pixelate these images, representing the simplified way the past exists in memory and the digital nature of contemporary life.

My two fixations are memory and change, documenting my lifetime, beginning in the mid-70s. The 80s were my elementary and middle school years. Then the high school and college years of the 90s. In the 00s I was suddenly an adult artist attempting to make it on my own. The 10s are a balance of being a productive artist while also being a husband and parent. Bright colors. Max Headroom. The Incredible Hulk. Blade Runner. The Goonies. R.E.M. Boards of Canada. Unsolved Mysteries. The NES and early phases of digital technology. The early days of the internet. Small personal things and huge events like 9-11 and the Challenger explosion.

Using memory and change as my main themes, I'm primaril...

1999 - B.F.A., University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC

SELECT SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2018
There's Still Time, Florence County Museum, Florence, SC

2015
A Long Time Ago, Gauntlet Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2013
The Land Between Solar Systems, Linda Warren Projects, Chicago, IL

2012
Unexplained Mysteries of the Universe, Aisho Miura Arts, Tokyo, Japan

2009
Hollis Brown Thornton: The Geography of Space, Sumter County Gallery of Art, Sumter, SC

2008
The Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle, Linda Warren Gallery, Chicago, IL

2007
Great Sea Creatures & the Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle, if ART Gallery, Columbia, SC

2006
Hollis Brown Thornton, Mary Pauline Gallery, Augusta, GA

2005
Great Sea Creatures & Punica Granatum, City Art, Columbia, SC
Great Sea Creatures & Punica Granatum, Jackson Gallery & Sculpture Garden, Aiken, SC

2004
The Great Fish & Every Kind of Plant that Bears Seed, Jackson Gallery & Sculpture Garden, Aiken, SC

2002
Hollis Brown Thornton, Verdir, Chicago, IL

2001
Hollis Brown Thornton, 80808 Vista Studios, Columbia, SC
Hollis Brown Thornton, Aiken Center for the Arts, Aiken, SC

2000
Hollis Brown Thornton, Gallery 701, Columbia, SC

SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2018
30th Anniversary Juried Art Exhibition, South Carolina State Museum, Columbia, SC

2015
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