Jammie Holmes

Interviews by Brainard Carey

Jammie Holmes in his Dallas studio, 2024. Photo by Daisy Avalos

Morning Thoughts takes its title from a 1981 Gil Scott-Heron song by the same name. Throughout the song’s soft, spoken-word lyrics Scott-Heron meditates on the magical potential felt in the moment when night quietly turns to day—on the possibilities that radiate in the first light of morning, as the morning glory and daylily buds open. With his newest body of work, Holmes captures this moment of possibility alongside the inevitable moments of loss that follow as flowers wilt, as color seeps away—the dichotomy of morning and mourning. Underneath all of this,Morning Thoughts embodies the resilience of Holmes, of his community: morning glory and daylily flowers may wilt and die by dusk, but the plants and their roots remain. With Morning Thoughts, Holmes reminds us that hope and loss go hand-in-hand—but beauty remains for those willing to see it, that flowers bloom again in the morning.

Jammie Holmes’s first solo museum exhibition, Jammie Holmes: Make the Revolution Irresistible, was presented at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX in 2023.

His work has been included in numerous group exhibitions, including:Afro-Atlantic Histories, which traveled to the Los Angeles County Museum ofArt, CA; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and the Dallas Museum of Art, TX. His work has also been included in group exhibitions at the New OrleansMuseum of Art, LA; the China Center of International Contemporary Art Vancouver, Canada;Columbus Museum of Art, OH; Dallas Contemporary, TX; and many more.

Jammie Holmes – ‘Black Market’ (2024) – copyright of Jammie Holmes and courtesy of Marianne Boesky Gallery

Jammie Holmes – ‘Morning Glory’ (2024) – copyright of Jammie Holmes and courtesy of Marianne Boesky Gallery

Jammie Holmes – ‘Malcolm’ (2024) – copyright of Jammie Holmes and courtesy of Marianne Boesky Gallery