I am interested in breaking down images of nature into a context-altering perspective.  I examine nature by abstracting and representing it at the same time.  In my recent work I have contrasted natural images with the analytical, yet still somewhat vague, world of mathematical models.  My pairing of the formal abstraction of a quantitative model with a more romantic representation of a living form is intended to be interpreted aesthetically and intuitively; to relate to art and to science as well as to personal experience.

I am also interested in the simplicity and elegance of the pursuit of data and of the experiment. I have made templates of programs written for controlling instrumentation and analyzing data.  I draw something organic on these images– e.g. a jellyfish or zooplankton.  I am presenting something about the scales of biological systems – from global models to molecular blots,  from reductionism to the whole organism alive and graceful with organic form.  The integral is still a thing of beauty and something that we recognize.

A large part of my interest in nature comes from my interest in vernacular perceptions of nature.  My search for images in old publications has given me a sense of scientific history.  Looking at older literature has also shown me the human tendency towards accepted wisdom – the image that makes sense must be “true”.  I am interested in how preconceptions frame people’s perceptions of truth.

-Holly Sumner

Sumner has shown nationally in a variety of venues.  Solo and group shows include ASLO, Santa Fe NM, d.u.m.b.o. Arts Center Brooklyn NY, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, CO, RULE Gallery, and Skep Gallery, NY.  

Sumner received her BFA from Alfred University in NY and her MFA from University of Colorado, Boulder. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.