Lonnie Holley facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Lonnie Holley
|
|
|---|---|
Holley in 2014
|
|
| Born | February 10, 1950 |
| Known for | Folk art, experimental music |
|
Notable work
|
Do We Think Too Much? I Don't Think We Can Ever Stop |
| Style | Found objects |
Lonnie Bradley Holley (born February 10, 1950), also known as the Sand Man, is an American artist, teacher, and musician. He is famous for his unique art pieces and art environments. These are made from everyday objects he finds and puts together. This type of art is called assemblage.
In 1981, Lonnie showed some of his sandstone carvings to Richard Murray, who was the director of the Birmingham Museum of Art. Murray helped Lonnie share his art with more people. Holley's art has been shown in many important places. These include the Birmingham Museum of Art, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. His work has also been displayed in London, England.
Lonnie Holley's art is also part of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation. This foundation works to support Black artists from the American South.
His music albums include Just Before Music (2012), Keeping a Record of It (2013), MITH (2018), and National Freedom (2020). He also released Broken Mirror: A Selfie Reflection with Matthew E. White in 2021. His album Oh Me Oh My came out in 2023, and Tonky was released in 2025.
Contents
Lonnie Holley's Early Life
Lonnie Holley was born on February 10, 1950, in Birmingham, Alabama. This was during the time of Jim Crow laws, which were unfair rules that separated Black and white people.
From a very young age, Lonnie worked many different jobs. He picked up trash, washed dishes, and cooked. He lived in several foster homes and had a difficult childhood. Lonnie was the seventh of 27 children. He has said that he was traded for a bottle of whiskey when he was four years old.
Before becoming an artist, Holley worked digging graves and picking cotton. He became a father at 15 and has 15 children. He also worked as a cook at Walt Disney World. As a child, he spent time at a juvenile facility called the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children.
Lonnie Holley's Art Career
Lonnie Holley started making art in 1979. He carved tombstones for his sister's two children, who had died in a house fire. He used soft, sandstone-like material that he found discarded near a metal factory. Holley believes that a special feeling led him to this material and inspired his art.
He continued to make carvings and put them in his yard with other found objects. In 1981, he showed his carvings to the director of the Birmingham Museum of Art. The museum immediately displayed some of his pieces. Soon, other museums, like the American Folk Art Museum in New York, also bought his art. His work has even been shown at the White House.
Holley also enjoyed visiting children's art events. He would bring blocks of the factory stone for kids to carve. He loves to share how creating art helped him learn to love himself.
By the mid-1980s, Holley's art included paintings and sculptures made from recycled found objects. His yard became a large art environment that many art lovers visited. However, it was sometimes damaged by people looking for scrap metal. Later, the expansion of the Birmingham International Airport threatened his art space.
In 1996, Holley's property near the airport was going to be taken by the city. He refused the airport's offer to buy his land for a low price. He knew his art environment had special value. He asked for more money, and after a court case, he received $165,700. This money helped him move his family and his art to a larger property in Harpersville, Alabama.
Lonnie Holley's first big art show, called Do We Think Too Much? I Don't Think We Can Ever Stop: Lonnie Holley, A Twenty-Five Year Survey, was organized by the Birmingham Museum of Art in 2003. It also traveled to the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, England. From 2003 to 2004, Holley created a large sculpture display at the Birmingham Museum of Art. This art was documented in a film called The Sandman's Garden.
His art was also part of a traveling exhibition called "Mary Lee Bendolph, Gee's Bend Quilts, and Beyond." This show started in 2007 and traveled to several museums until 2010.
In 2014, Holley's work was in an exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem called "When the Stars Begin to Fall: Imagination and the American South." This show featured many Black artists from the American South. The exhibition later traveled to the NSU Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston.
In 2015, the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston held Holley's first solo museum exhibition since 1994. It was called "Something to Take My Place: The Art of Lonnie Holley." During this time, he created new art on-site and met with school groups.
In 2018, his art was part of the "History Refused to Die" exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This show featured paintings, sculptures, drawings, and quilts by self-taught Black artists from the American South.
Lonnie Holley was named a Fellow by United States Artists (USA) in 2022. This organization supports artists in the United States.
Other Art Exhibitions
- "Outliers and American Vanguard Art," National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2018-2019.
- "We Will Walk – Art and Resistance in the American South" at Turner Contemporary, Kent, England, 2020.
- "Souls Grown Deep like the Rivers: Black Artists from the American South," Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2023.
Lonnie Holley's Music Career
Lonnie Holley started his professional music career in 2006. He made recordings in an Alabama church using only a keyboard and a microphone. These were improvisational vocal recordings, meaning he made them up as he went along.
In 2012, he released his first album, Just Before Music. His second album, Keeping a Record of It, followed in 2013. In September 2018, he released his third album, MITH.
In April 2021, Holley released a collaboration album with Matthew E. White called Broken Mirror: A Selfie Reflection. His album Oh Me Oh My was released on March 10, 2023. It received very good reviews. In 2025, his album Tonky was released.
Discography
- Just Before Music (2012)
- Keeping a Record of It (2013)
- Live on the Modern World with DJ Trouble – April 2013
- MITH (2018)
- National Freedom (2020)
- Broken Mirror: A Selfie Reflection (2021) – with Matthew E. White
- Oh Me Oh My (2023)
- Tonky (2025)
