Jammie Holmes | Artist | East West Bank Art Program

Jammie Holmes (b. 1984, active Dallas), born and raised in rural Louisiana, is a contemporary painter known for colorful and symbolic scenes of Black life in the Deep South, paying particular attention to the contrast of Louisiana as a hub of hospitality and as a place with a long history of poverty and racism. Holmes spent over a decade working in the oil fields before relocating to Dallas in 2016 to become an artist. Self-taught, the quick brushstrokes and intentionally unfinished objects in his paintings emphasize his own sense of memory as well as universal experiences of struggle and fortitude: “I was inspired by what my everyday life was like when I was a young man in Thibodaux. I wanted to show that this same way of life is still taking place today — people worrying about their future, their lost loved ones and what’s next for them.” Holmes’ artwork is in the permanent collections of the Dallas Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University; and Hammer Museum. His artwork has also been exhibited at Various Small Fires, Los Angeles; Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York; and Deitch Projects, Los Angeles. Read more