Born in 1987 in Bethesda, Maryland, USA
Holly Lowen is an artist whose work explores the psychological tension between control and instinct. Through a dynamic interplay of figuration and abstraction, she investigates how civility, ritual, and repression intersect with vulnerability and primal drive. Drawing from art history, sports psychology, and existential philosophy, her practice often centers on social performance—examining spaces like the tennis court as microcosms of human struggle.
In Lowen's paintings, tennis' polished uniformity, polite decorum, and underlying aggression become metaphors for the contradictions of modern life: where precision and control offer both liberation and confinement. Her entangled figures, influenced by the dramatic intensity of Old Master compositions, disrupt formal structures to reveal the fragility of societal norms and the simmering chaos beneath composed surfaces.
A recent graduate of New York Academy of Art's MFA program, she was the subject of a solo exhibition at Simchowitz Gallery in Los Angeles, California in 2025. Perrotin is proud to present Holly Lowen's first New York solo exhibition in June 2026.
education
2025 MFA New York Academy of Art
solo shows
2026
- Perrotin, New York, NY, USA (forthcoming)
2025
- Entanglement, Simchowitz Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA
group shows
2025
- Panorama, Perrotin, Paris, France
- Duet: Holly Lowen & Jeffrey Merris, curated by Kyle DeWoody and Zoe Lukov, François Ghebaly, New York, NY, USA
- Smorgasbord, Eric Firestone, East Hampton, NY, USA