Originating in autobiography, Loie Hollowell's paintings explore themes of sexuality, often through abstractions of the human body and an emphasis on female forms. With strong colors, varied texture, and the symmetry of sacred geometry, her works evoke bodily landscapes and allude to iconography such as the almond-shaped mandorlas found in medieval religious painting. Hollowell earned a BFA from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. Among her major solo exhibitions are Pace Gallery (New York and Seoul), Koenig Galerie (Berlin), Long Museum West Bund (Shanghai, China), and the National Gallery of Saskatchewan, Canada. Her work is included in the collections of the Centre Pompidou (Paris), Crystal Bridges Museum (Bentonville, AR), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, DC), and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Hollowell was the recipient of a 2011 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship Award.