ERASED PLATES
Gun Control (No One’s Listening)
LADIES & GENTLEMEN SERIES
MOTHER IN EXILE SERIES
22 November 1963 (JFK) SERIES
SEPTEMBER 11 2001 SERIES
American, b. 1988, Hatfield, PA
lives and works in San Antonio, TX
Hollie Lyko operates within the intersection of the collection, the souvenir, and porcelain kitsch, inserting social and political commentaries on societal values, cultural trauma and personal and collective memory. She is known for her work with vintage commercial plates, in which she alters the pre-existing image meticulously by hand with a dremel tool.
Lyko has shown nationally, most recently at The Clay Studio, (Philadelphia, PA), and Mockingbird Handprints Gallery (San Antonio, TX). Her work is included in the collection of the Fuller Craft Museum (Brockton, MA). Lyko will be an artist-in-residence at Elsewhere Museum (Greensboro, NC) this coming summer.
In 2010, Lyko completed her BFA from the University of Hartford, and she received her MFA from Syracuse University in 2019.
Hollie Lyko, “Lady & Gentleman no. 18”
ON HER WORK AND PROCESS
The critique of American culture through the lens of kitsch is the subject of my life long investigation and pursuits. I re-contextualize ordinary domestic objects to interject social and political commentaries dealing with belief systems and standards of morality, grounded in religion, class and race.
Sourcing my material from thrift shops, antique stores, E-Bay and Etsy, I gather objects evocative of personal memories as well as collectibles and souvenirs containing images of celebrities, populist icons and Americana. I am always looking for something specific but something also remarkably ubiquitous and ordinary.
For my series of blue and white porcelain panels, I explore personal and cultural memory, value and class. I slip cast these objects in porcelain and smother their surface with blue and white Delft-inspired decals. The alchemical change that occurs in the firing process turns memories into memorials, ultimately transforming vintage clutter into blue and white porcelain paintings.
Within the vintage souvenir plates that I collect, I explore erasure, absence and loss within the collective American consciousness. I use a dremel tool to meticulously remove the auxiliary imagery, exposing the raw ceramic surface. I equate the violent act of erasure with the content of the plates themselves -from the assassination of John F. Kennedy, to the whitewashing of America’s history and the societal value of heteronormativity. Through questioning the stereotypes and propaganda disseminated on collectibles of the past, I reopen a conversation about ideals and beliefs within contemporary American culture.
(picture left) Hollie Lyko, “Lady & Gentleman no. 18″, 2018-2019, detail, dremel-erased plate, circa 1950, 10 x 10 x 1”
Hollie Lyko, “Gun Control (No One’s Listening)”
ERASED PLATES
Gun Control (No One’s Listening)
Within my latest series, I utilize Royal Copenhagen’s Statue of Liberty collector’s plates, vintage Catholic praying hands plates and New York City souvenir plates to re-make “American” images. I think about particular symbols of America and the values they represent while comparing them to events in our recent collective conscience. In this new work, I have begun evaluating the markers of my own generation – that of Millennials, beginning with the Columbine High School Massacre, the September 11th terrorist attacks and the Trump Administration’s U.S/Mexico immigration and border policies. This body of works draws from both Judith Butler’s text Precarious Life and from the kitsch objects themselves. Within material culture, and specifically ceramic collectibles, I find sentimentality, nostalgia, beauty, comfort and pride. By removing part of the plate’s image with a Dremel tool, I instill violence onto the object itself, re-making American images to reflect our pain, loss and desperation.
(pictured left) Hollie Lyko, “Gun Control (No One’s Listening)”, 2019, dremel-erased vintage praying hands plates, circa 1976, 28 x 30 x 1″. Installation View in Shaping Memories, Virginia MOCA, 2022.
Hollie Lyko, “Lady & Gentleman no. 34”
LADIES & GENTLEMEN SERIES
Lyko presents, ‘Lady and Gentleman’, ’22 November 1963, and American Standard’. Each series explores erasure and camouflage within the veil of American history. Lyko meticulously removes the glaze on found souvenirs ceramic plates.
The artist notes “I equate the violent act of erasure with the content of the plates themselves -from the assassination of John F. Kennedy, to the whitewashing of America’s history and the societal value of marriage and heteronormativity. Through questioning the stereotypes and propaganda disseminated on collectibles of the past, I reopen a conversation about ideals and beliefs within contemporary American culture.”
(pictured left) Hollie Lyko, “Lady & Gentleman no. 34″, 2018-2019, dremel-erased plate, circa 1950, 9.25 x 11.5 x 1”
Hollie Lyko, “Mother in Exile”
MOTHER IN EXILE SERIES
Within my latest series, I utilize Royal Copenhagen’s Statue of Liberty collector’s plates, vintage Catholic praying hands plates and New York City souvenir plates to re-make “American” images. I think about particular symbols of America and the values they represent while comparing them to events in our recent collective conscience. In this new work, I have begun evaluating the markers of my own generation – that of Millennials, beginning with the Columbine High School Massacre, the September 11th terrorist attacks and the Trump Administration’s U.S/Mexico immigration and border policies. This body of works draws from both Judith Butler’s text Precarious Life and from the kitsch objects themselves. Within material culture, and specifically ceramic collectibles, I find sentimentality, nostalgia, beauty, comfort and pride. By removing part of the plate’s image with a dremel tool, I instill violence onto the object itself, re-making American images to reflect our pain, loss and desperation.
This is the third work I made out of graduate school and a continuation of work with dremel-erased vintage plates. It’s the first time I have dremelled a non-decalled surface; Royal Copenhagen airbrushes underglazes and then glazes clear over top. So this is a heavily dremelled surface.
(picture left) Hollie Lyko, “Mother in Exile” 2020, dremel-erased Royal Copenhagen Statue of Liberty collector plates, circa 1969-1974, 8 x 8 x 1″, edition of 8
Hollie Lyko, “JFK no. 3”
22 November 1963 (JFK) SERIES
Lyko presents, ‘Lady and Gentleman’, ’22 November 1963, and American Standard’. Each series explores erasure and camouflage within the veil of American history. Lyko meticulously removes the glaze on found souvenirs ceramic plates.
The artist notes “I equate the violent act of erasure with the content of the plates themselves -from the assassination of John F. Kennedy, to the whitewashing of America’s history and the societal value of marriage and heteronormativity. Through questioning the stereotypes and propaganda disseminated on collectibles of the past, I reopen a conversation about ideals and beliefs within contemporary American culture.”
(pictured left) Hollie Lyko, “JFK no. 3”, 2018, dremel-erased JFK & Family collectible plate, circa 1961-1963, 7.25 x 7.25 x 0.5”.
Hollie Lyko, “September 11 2001”
SEPTEMBER 11 2001 SERIES
Within my latest series, I utilize Royal Copenhagen’s Statue of Liberty collector’s plates, vintage Catholic praying hands plates and New York City souvenir plates to re-make “American” images. I think about particular symbols of America and the values they represent while comparing them to events in our recent collective conscience. In this new work, I have begun evaluating the markers of my own generation – that of Millennials, beginning with the Columbine High School Massacre, the September 11th terrorist attacks and the Trump Administration’s U.S/Mexico immigration and border policies. This body of works draws from both Judith Butler’s text Precarious Life and from the kitsch objects themselves. Within material culture, and specifically ceramic collectibles, I find sentimentality, nostalgia, beauty, comfort and pride. By removing part of the plate’s image with a dremel tool, I instill violence onto the object itself, re-making American images to reflect our pain, loss and desperation.
This is the second work I made in San Antonio and a continuation of my work with dremel erased plates. This plate has a lot of text info on the back of the original plate. Made in Russia I believe, will send photo of back of plate.
(pictured left) Hollie Lyko, “September 11 2001″ 2019, dremel-erased NYC souvenir plates circa 1999, 8 x 8 x 1”, edition of 2.
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