With an interest in the relationship between memory and our desire to document or freeze time, Charlotte, North Carolina-based artist Holly Keogh is especially fascinated by the inherent limitations of any archival practice. Growing up as a first generation American, Keogh’s family members in England and America mailed photographs back and forth. “These photographs depict cousin’s birthdays I never attended or new homes I never stepped inside,” she explains. “I examine the familiar faces in these images in vain; I can’t bring them any closer, I can’t reconstruct the original moments in time.” 

Using these photographs as a starting point, she fills in the gaps with her imagination, bringing to life psychologically charged paintings borne from a will to remember and a power to project. Describing her painting process, she explains: “I find energy in the space between my capacity to render realistically, and my decision to give up control. With this treatment, the paintings arrive at something that is as familiar as it is open to interpretation; a combination of that imperfect documentation and my equally imperfect memory. My work aims to create a sensory experience that brings awareness to how our personal or collective history is malleable and constantly in flux.”

See more from Holly Keogh below!