Leslie Hickey & Erin Murray
What We See and
What We Know
March 5 – 28, 2020

HOLDING Contemporary presents a two-person show, featuring photographs by Leslie Hickey and drawings by Erin Murray. What We See and What We Know opens March 5 from 6 – 8 pm, in conjunction with Portland’s First Thursday in The Pearl. The exhibit runs from March 5 – 28 and gallery hours are noon – 5 pm, Thursday – Saturday.

“I have spent the day well just looking and looking. It is the same in art as in life.
The deeper one penetrates, the broader grows the view.”
— Goethe, Italian Journey

In What We See and What We Know artists Leslie Hickey and Erin Murray contemplate real and imagined interior spaces. The two artists ruminate on the quiet loveliness of the ordinary. Portland artist Leslie Hickey’s photographs from around the world combine her keen eye and sense of wonder. Whether her gaze is focused on the stillness of an unoccupied bedroom, or the cheerfulness of a squiggly-shaped telephone cord, her images capture the unexpected lyricism of familiar objects. 

Hickey’s work is paired with Philadelphia artist Erin Murray’s graphite and india ink drawings. Murray’s abstract, illusory imagery investigates psychological and pictorial space. Her enigmatic works appear like paper cut-out portals that entangle observation and imagination. Curvilinear fixtures, window reflections, or curtain draperies transmit a feeling of occupation, of a dreamlike journey through a room. What We See and What We Know invites viewers to experience quiet engagement through the activity of looking.

Leslie Hickey (b. 1983) lives and works in Portland, Oregon. She holds BA degrees in Studio Art and English from Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA. She has had recent solo exhibitions at Edel Extra (Nuremberg, Germany) and Jules Maidoff Gallery, SACI (Florence, Italy), and group exhibitions at Rubus Discolor Project (Portland, OR), Wolff Gallery (Portland, OR), 13th A.I.R. Biennial, A.I.R. Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), and Palazzo dei Cartelloni Gallery, SACI (Florence, Italy). In 2017, she was awarded a fellowship at The Civita Institute in Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy. She has also been awarded grants through the Regional Arts and Culture Council and the Oregon Arts Commission. Hickey is a founding member of SCALENO, an international photographic collective established in 2015, and a former member of Small Talk Collective. Her images can be found in print in Aint-Bad No. 14 and Issue 5 of Big Big Wednesday. She is also the proprietor of a letterpress, Hoarfrost Press.

Erin Murray (b. 1979) received her BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States, including solo and two-person exhibitions at Vox Populi (Philadelphia, PA), Harpy Gallery (Rutherford, NJ), Nancy Margolis Gallery (New York, NY), and the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts (Wilmington, DE). In 2018 she was awarded the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, and she has been previously recognized with the West Collects acquisition prize, the Fleisher Wind Challenge Exhibition Grant, and a Center for Emerging Visual Artists fellowship. Her work has been published twice in New American Paintings and has been featured in various flat file programs including Mother Gallery, White Columns, TSA, and Camayuhs. She recently served five years as a member of the artist-run collective Vox Populi in Philadelphia, where she currently lives and works.

Photos by Mario Gallucci