Art in America: Lonnie Holley’s Earthen Monuments Sing in a Survey Including Fellow Black Artists from the South « News

Art in America: Lonnie Holley’s Earthen Monuments Sing in a Survey Including Fellow Black Artists from the South

July 31, 2023

Monica Uszerowicz

In his sculptures, Lonnie Holley utilizes terraneous materials—sand, stone, iron, the detritus buried beneath them—but remains steadily inspired by water. In “I Am a Part of the Wonder,” a song on his recent album Oh Me Oh My, Holley sings about “the wonders of / a drip of water / falling from the sky.” During a conversation before the opening of his Miami survey show “If You Really Knew,” Holley described to me visible dew on flowers, the palpable Florida humidity. “Every one of these plants is breathing,” he said. “Their roots are acquiring the dampness. A drop of water is a living thing.”