Artist Statement
I use an interdisciplinary approach including Sculpture, Installation, Environmental Design, and Public Art to create new experiences based upon utopian visions of environmentalist futures. By mixing art, architecture and nature, I’m grappling with our collective hopes and anxieties moving forward (and backward) through the 21st century.
By deconstructing physical objects and large scale architectures -and remixing them with nature- I try to reveal deeper aspects of our relationship to the environment. By inverting concepts and manipulating familiar everyday imagery, I can address the public with playful optimism, drawing people into art-driven solutions addressing serious issues regarding our natural world.
In my works, working in macro and micro scale, I have manipulated outmoded vehicles, floated drawings on rivers, turned nature inside-out and made eco-systems live out-of-place. In public art projects, my works become sites of play and gathering points for larger discussions. Often, it is the public at large who complete the works by their interactions with it, gently reminding us that environmentalism is humanism.
In blending art, nature and architecture I seek to highlight issues. I construct works that are synthesis of fantastical and practical to show solutions as well as to poke fun as we grapple with becoming a sustainable “future society”. As an artist with the Social Computing Group at MIT Media Lab, I have been able to realize projects in collaboration with scientists, architects, and new media artists, providing new avenues of inquiry for my work and new contexts for art interventions in the public realm.
I mix Sculpture, Nature, and Model-making to create new visions based upon utopian dreams of a verdant future. By mixing sculpture and nature, I’m grappling with our collective hopes and anxieties as we evolve into a sustainable society.
Press
2021 Time Out NY, “Climate Change-Themed Minigolf” by Shaye Weaver April 2021
Untapped Cities NY, “Putting Green Opens in Williamsburg” by Irene Madrigal July 2021
2017 StoryCorp, The Library of Congress, “A Woman’s Right: The Story Tells It” Interview by Jackie Neale
2016 Creators and Creatives, A Natural Classroom, Airtable, August 2016 In-Habitat.com, Trailer Park v2, Nicole Jewell October 2016
2013 New York One, Live Interview and Follow Up, Stephanie Simon, September 27, 2013 Dumbo Arts Festival, “Kayaking into the Brooklyn Bridge Inlet for Art Installation,” September 23, 2013 Huffington Post, Cover photo for Dumbo Arts Festival Preview, September 23, 2013
Untapped Cites, “Kim Holleman’s Trailer Park for Ideas City in NYC,” Lizzie Boyle, 2013
In-Habitat.com, “Ideas City Festival Livens Up the Bowery,” Lori Zimmer, May 5, 2013
Art in America, “Big Ideas: New Museums Festival for Cities,” Tracy Zwick, April 29, 2013 New Museum Tumblr, Q+A with the New Museum, April 2013, 2013
Time Out NY, “What to See at Ideas City,” Jennifer M. Wood, April 23, 2013
Flavorpill, “Kim Holleman’s Uncanny Valley,” April 18, 2013
Greenster, “Kim Holleman’s Trailer Park,” April 18, 2013
Salty Eggs, “Parks and Reclamation: Florida–born Artist Kim Holleman Builds a Preserve From Spare Parts,” Sean Piccoli, January 28, 2013
2012 The New York Times, “A Nature Park that Doesn’t Put Down Roots,” Yuka Yoneda, section A, Page 20, October 23, 2012
NPR: National Public Radio, Morning Edition, “Maker Faire Celebrates DIY Culture,” October 1, 2012
Treehugger, “Best Trailer Park Ever: Artist’s Converted 18 Root RV Hides a Real Garden Inside (Video),” Kimberley Mok, August 10, 2012
Inhabitat.com, “Kim Holleman’s Terrarium-Like Sculptures Challenge Environmental Issues,” Lori Zimmer, April 4, 2012
ArtNerdNY, “Kim Holleman at SenaSpace,” by Lori Zimmer, April 8, 2012
Brooklyn Magazine, “Artists Imagine Inhabitable Habitats,” by Dierdre Herring 2012 Inhabitat.com, “Kim Holleman’s Trailer Park Recycles a Camper Into a Mobile Green Oasis,” Jessica Dailey, April 10, 2012
Make Blog, “Kim Holleman’s Micro Environments Are Very Much Alive,” Nick Normal, January 16, 2012
New York Magazine, “Critic’s Choice: Kim Holleman In Habitat at Front Room Gallery” Gothamist, “What To Do This Weekend: LIC Block Party”
2011 Inhabitat.com, “Artist Transform Trash Into Eco-Art at NYC Exhibit,” Jessica Dailey, December 4, 2011
New Urbanism Video Series, “Trailer Park: A Mobile Public Park,” Directed by Kelley Loudenberg
2010 WNYC, “Critic’s Pick: Kim Holleman’s Museum of (Un)natural History”
American City Magazine, “ Trailer Park: Sustainable Art Park,” Katherine Donn, Summer, Issue 2010
The Next American City Magazine, “Trailer Park: Coming to a Curbside Near You,” Katherine Donn, Winter 2010
The Dark Mountain Journal, Volume 1, Literary and Visual Arts Journal, United Kingdom Versal, Literary and Visual Art Journal, Holland
Selected Articles:
MIT School of Architecture
and Planning
"In The Media"
Reinventing classrooms for early childhood education
The New York Times
"A Nature Park That Doesn't
Put Down Roots"
by Yuka Yoneda
MAKE
"There's Something About
Women and Science"
by Kim Holleman
The New Museum
Ideas City with Kim Holleman