By LanaRus

I caught up with Laurel Holloman at Miki Turner’s book launch party last week. As Miki said in her opening speech, Laurel was a strong force behind getting the book published and she herself also appeared in Miki’s book alongside one of her paintings. When we got a little break at the party, I had a chance to talk to Laurel about her art, her participation with Miki’s book and her plans for the future.

LanaRus: Let’s talk about your art, exhibitions in Europe and how’s everything going in your painting career.

Laurel Holloman: Everything’s going really, really well. Venezia was hugely successful. It was a three-month run in Ateneo and it was just an incredible place to have a second solo show. It was a very big jump to go from the Paris show to that show.

LR: The Paris show was successful too.

LH: Yes but what was great about Venezia that it was mainly for the European art world. I got a great review in “La Repubblica” with Lea Mattarella who’s the art critic there and we couldn’t ask for a better review. It was wonderful and there was a lot of celebration that I was painting so large and there were very few women that were doing that. So that’s what happened in Venezia and from that we are going to move the show most likely to Berlin. We’ve been offered some museum slots. We are just figuring out the timing and how these things work but I’m excited. That’s really what my goal was all along two years ago, is to be an exhibition painter.

“Free Falling” is its own show. Mainly we are focusing on the murals. “Let Me Fall” has been sold and it’s with a German collector now and it’s already been delivered. I work really hard right now. I probably paint 40 hours a week. I’m painting new stuff, similar sizes. I don’t know if people really understand but I paint 11×14’s right now, which means I spend half of my day on scaffolding. There’s a couple of things that are happening right now that could be career breaking so I’ll see if they happen. I will know whether they happen over the next few months but I feel really lucky to come from the entertainment world and be embraced by the art world, especially in Europe.

I’m probably going to be focusing on Europe for the next five years and eventually move over to New York. Not move, but to have an exhibition there. I really need the American pop culture TV thing that was built up to die down. It completely has nothing to do with what I’m doing right now. I think the thing that upsets me the most right now is when some people say, “Oh, she sells her art to fans,” and that’s not really what’s going on at all. I’m so happy to have fans. That’s one reason why we did poster sells. There’s not a really big profit there but it allows people to have the art that a lot of people couldn’t afford.