Signed 2000 “Asoko Xviii” Mixed Media Wall Assemblage Juliet Holland

A 2000 mixed media wall assemblage titled, Asoko XVIII by the American artist Juliet Holland (1937-2017). Layers of black paper and sand are painted over in white, pale blue, and mustard yellow in this heavily textured assemblage. Purposeful scratches and cracking throughout the piece create a sense of passing time. The assemblage is signed, dated, and titled to the verso.

Born in Wellesley Hills and Duxbury, Massachusetts, Juliet Holland (1937-2017) moved on from her life as a suburban wife, mother, and social hostess and began her art practice in the 1960s. Holland’s adult life was spent between two chosen homes; for more than 35 years, she lived between an apartment at Bleeker and Broadway in New York City and a tiny fisherman’s cottage in Saugatuck Shores, Connecticut. Her technique mirrored her dual landscapes and incorporated rich layers of sand, paints, clay, powders, metallics, and natural elements, which were built up, then scratched and scraped back down, creating layers — evoking time.

Holland showed in over one hundred one-person and group exhibitions between 1981 and 2018. Her work is held in museums such as the San Antonio Museum of Modern Art, Reading Public Museum, as well as a number of corporate and private collections. Holland was a co-founder of Art Bridge, a program that established an artist exchange between Japan and the United States for twelve years. In addition to being an artist and businesswoman, she worked as a curator of several exhibitions and was on the board of directors of Lamia Ink!, a non-profit organization dedicated to the arts.