“When people look at my work I want them to feel something.”
— Jammie Holmes
Born in Louisiana and based in Dallas, Texas, Jammie Holmes is a self-taught, neo-expressionist contemporary painter. His raw, energetic oeuvre addresses complex religious, political, and contemporary issues. The colourful passion of his canvases belies a very thoughtful symbolism and vulnerability. Born to a Sierra Leonean father and raised in an impoverished household in Southern Louisiana, Holmes’s paintings tell the story of contemporary life for many black families in the Deep South, celebrating family, ritual and tradition amid the everyday turmoil and scars of poverty and racism. Despite not having a formal art education - or perhaps because of it - Holmes’s work demonstrates an extraordinary ability to speak to the inequalities of life in a simple and powerful way.
Represented by the Library Street Collective, Holmes’s work forms part of distinguished public collections including the Dallas Museum of Art.
