LOS GATOS, Calif. — As carved, gilded and decorated frames fell out of fashion in the mid-20th century, another idea took hold: Modern paintings required only a simple molded strip around the edge. In addition to being expensive, this handmade frame can also be called an “antique”. When artist Holly Lane was an undergraduate painting student at San Jose State University in the mid-1980s, she found herself observing, according to the mid-century principle, “A good frame is one that is unobtrusive.”
To this end, Lane spent nearly forty years exploring and exploiting the possibilities of reliquary-style frames that echoed early Christian carvings and marginalia. In her art that mixes painting and sculpture, everything works together to create a temple to the natural world and honor its sacredness. There is a work at the entrance to Lane’s exhibition in Los Gatos, from which the exhibition takes its title: “Not Enough Time to Love the World” (2022). It takes on the image of a bubble, a symbol of ephemerality. A winged hourglass is engraved directly above the frame, evoking the passage of time that hovers beneath the arch that symbolizes the span of our lives. Together, these images tell us that thinking about nature is now increasingly shaped by an acute awareness of the threats it faces.
When the artist was forced to move to a new location outside the city, she created After the Storm (2012), one of the more personal works in the exhibition. Its intricate crown symbolizes triumph after suffering, while the scenes shown in the side door – including a starry sky, a duck on a book and two dogs fighting for underwear – add wonder and gentle humour.
Another work, Gentle Muse (2010), pays homage to trees and their functions as fuel, shade, building material and medicine. The Gothic side carvings of its frame recall the architecture of the church and complement the cylindrical apothecary jar. The central image of the tree is made of graphite on Mylar, giving it an elegiac quality that harmonizes with the relic character of the frame.
Through her exploration of frames, Lane invents new ways of presenting the secular and sacred, centered around nature. With its interwoven symbols and images, her art provokes deeper reflections on the place and meaning of nature in times of environmental crisis.
Holly Lane – Not enough time to love the world The new museum in Los Gatos will be on view until January 12, 2025. The exhibition is curated by Helaine Glick.
