Holly Trostle Brigham

About

Holly Trostle Brigham is a Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts-trained figurative painter who creates mythical allegories of contemporary historical subjects. Her paintings are included in prestigious public collection like the National Portrait Gallery in D.C., the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, the Corcoran Collection in D.C., Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania State University, and Allentown Art Museum. Brigham attended Smith College, where she studied Art History and Italian and studied abroad in Florence, Italy. She went on to study Art History at the graduate level at the University of Pittsburgh, fine art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and then earned her MFA in Painting at the George Washington University. She has taught at Pasadena City College, Worcester State College, the Worcester Art Museum, and the Baum School of Art.

Through self-portraits, Holly Trostle Brigham calls attention to the challenges women artists have faced through history, illuminating the legacies of strong women of the past by blending them with her own identity and personal experiences of what it is like to be a woman and an artist today.

Brigham’s “subjects” range from the mythical figures of Cybele and Isis (the Roman goddess of fertility and Egyptian goddess of regeneration), to historical individuals, including ground-breaking fine artists such as Edmonia Lewis and Frida Kahlo, pioneering members of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs), as well as lesser known women who were social, religious, and literary leaders of their day.

“Brigham inspires the viewer to consider the question of self-hood and legacy more broadly and underscores the important role of “sisterhood” to the advancement of humankind,” said Shelley R. Langdale The Park Family Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings, Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2022         ‘I Wake Again’: Holly Trostle Brigham on Elizabeth Siddal, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE

2022         Concurrent Exhibition to ‘I Wake Again’ at the Delaware Art Museum, Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE

2019         Holly Trostle Brigham, Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE

2019         Holly Trostle Brigham, Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, PA

2019         Holly Trostle Brigham, Sordoni Art Gallery, Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA

2016         Holly Trostle Brigham: Sisters and Goddesses, James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, PA

2016         Holly Trostle Brigham, The Ronald K. De Long Gallery, Penn State University, Center Valley, PA

2015         Holly Trostle Brigham: Sacred Sisters, in collaboration with poet Marilyn Nelson, William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT

2013         Holly Trostle Brigham: Myths, Portraits and Self, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

2009         Holly Trostle Brigham: Three Stages, Raven Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

1998         Undressed in Her Rightful Mind: Paintings by Holly Trostle Brigham, Clark University, Worcester, MA

Selected Group Exhibitions

2018         Tradition and Innovation: PAFA Artists in PA, Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, PA

2017         Historical and Contemporary Women Artists, Avery Galleries, Bryn Mawr, PA

2017         Drawn From: 15 Years of Exhibitions at the Luther W. Brady Art Gallery, Washington, DC

2017         The Christa Project: Manifesting Divine Bodies, St. John the Divine Cathedral, New York, NY

2009         Humanity: 100 Years of Figurative Art, ACA Galleries, New York, NY

2004         Self-Portraits, The Plastic Club, Philadelphia, PA

2000         Our Image, Ourselves, juried exhibition, ARTSWorcester Gallery at the Aurora, Worcester, MA

Selected Public Collections

Allentown Art Museum
Bates College Museum of Art
Skillman Library, Special Collections
Mount Holyoke College Art Museum
Oberlin College
Pennsylvania State University
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Smith College Museum of Art
National Portrait Gallery
Swarthmore College
The Dimock Gallery
Luther W. Brady Art Gallery/Corcoran Collection

Education

1994         MFA, Painting, The George Washington University, Washington, DC

1991         Certificate Program, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

1988         Smith College, Northampton, MA

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