Patrick Earl Hammie
Artist Statement:
Perhaps more than any other form of image-making, figurative painting is often read as a mirror of the time in which it is made; the canvas might be uniquely valued as a type of sociohistorical document. My portraits explore the tension between power and vulnerability, questioning historical constructions of gender and race to expand the filters through which identity is understood. Blending traditions of the Old Masters with contemporary modes of representation, I use body language and narrative to reconfigure inherited conceptions of ideal beauty and heroic nudity. Examining how male artists have presented themselves and the nude, my works symbolize my shadow-selves and move towards aspect of representation that have been historically skewed, are contemporarily taboo or underrepresented.
Artist Biography:
Patrick Earl Hammie received a M.F.A. from the University of Connecticut, and a B.A. from South Carolina’s Coker College in Drawing and Psychology. He’s been an artist in residence at Wellesley College, supported by the Alice C. Cole Fellowship in Studio Arts, and an artist in residence at the John Michael Kohler Art Center, supported by an award from Alliance of Artists Communities. Hammie is currently an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In addition to exhibiting, he maintains an active speaking schedule as a public lecturer, visiting artist, panelist, and critic. He has received several awards and recognitions, including the Tanne Foundation award, Midwestern Voices and Visions award, Award of Excellence from the Zhou B. Art Center in Chicago, Arnold O. Beckman Research Award and a Dave Bown Projects Award. His work is featured in What the Body Says: Power and Vulnerability, (Poet/Artists Magazine, 2011), Figure, Face, Identity, (Sprocketbox Entertainment, 2011) and From Motion to Stillness, (Poets/Artist Magazine, 2013).