holly fischer

Using both figurative and botanical elements, Raleigh artist Holly Fischer explores the dualities inherent in beauty and femininity in her abstracted white clay works.

Artist: Born in Missoula, MT, Fischer grew up with artistic parents who helped foster her early creativity.

When she was four years old, Fischer’s family moved from Montana to Boone, NC, where she grew up exploring the woods in the Appalachian Mountains and making artwork from a variety of found materials. One of her earliest “sculptures” was a cat created from sticky burrs.

In the mid-1990s, she moved to Raleigh to attend Meredith College where she graduated with a BA in studio art and discovered a love for working with clay.

Fischer earned an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin, where she pushed the boundaries of ceramic sculpture by creating larger-than-life figurative forms using a coil construction process.

Fischer enhanced the conceptual foundation of her work by incorporating feminist theory gained through coursework in women and gender studies.

Following grad school, she taught at the Savannah College of Art and Design and the School for the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

She also completed a yearlong residency at a ceramic center in Massachusetts.

In 2007, Fischer moved back to Raleigh and began teaching part-time at Meredith College, her alma mater. She eventually transitioned into her current position as a full-time ceramics and sculpture professor and the coordinator of the ceramics studio.

Studio: Holly Fischer maintains an active artistic practice out of her home in Raleigh, where she has a sizable kiln for firing her large-scale ceramic sculptures.

Art & materials:

Ceramic work created from white clay.
Stone carving in alabaster and soapstone.
Mixed-media sculpture, including metals, cast-paper and fibers.

Prices range from $500 to $15,000 depending on the scale and complexity of her work.

Process: Primarily coil construction, a process used to create hollow forms from coils or ropes of clay in concentric rings. See her process video at: http://www.hollyfischer.com/process.html

What’s popular:

Large abstracted figurative sculptures in white clay that challenge gender stereotypes and culturally standardized concepts of beauty.
Over the last ten years, she has focused on a series of hybrid forms that include both figurative and botanical elements, which are inspired by carnivorous plants as metaphorical femme fatales.

Favorite or must-have tools: Her hands. The ability to sculpt directly with her hands is one of the most rewarding aspects of working with clay.

Inspirations:

The dichotomies surrounding concepts of femininity and Fischer’s personal struggle to be comfortable in her skin.
Feminist theory and writers including John Berger, Laura Mulvey, Susan Bordo and Judith Butler.
Artistic influences, including the sculptures of Michelangelo, Bernini, Gaston Lachaise and Louise Bourgeois.

“I believe there is much to learn from these four very different sculptors about how to convey passion, sensuality and strength through the human form,” said Fischer.

For sensual abstraction, artists including Judy Chicago, Georgia O’Keeffe, Robert Mapplethorpe and Edward Weston.
Conceptually, painter Jenny Saville, who also draws from feminist theory and uses her own body to confront and engage viewers on topics that impact women’s bodies.

Recent awards/honors:

Pauline Davis Perry Award for research, publication, and/or artistic achievement from Meredith College. April 2024.

“This award is special to me,” said Fischer. “As it recognizes that I have successfully balanced the responsibilities of teaching, mentorship and service to the college while maintaining an active studio practice.”

Guest artist and presenter for the 11^th annual BEAS (Betty Eichenberger Adams Society) luncheon at the Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh. November 2024.

Recent project: Exploring concepts of pollination, seed pods and fruiting as a metaphor for influence and legacy.

What’s next: Summer months immersed in her home studio focusing on creating new sculptures.

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