Work created by Camille Hoffman.
Camille Hoffman (she/her/hers) was born in 1987 in Chicago, IL. Reflecting on the construction of landscape, both natural and manufactured, “Michigan Landscape ” critically draws upon the language of historic romantic American Landscape painting and contemporary kitsch to speak to the urgent environmental reality facing low-income communities of color in the state at large.
“My art practice is studio-based, but I draw a lot from the history, communities, and architecture of the locations I install as I create.”
Considering the genesis of the Maple tree in the wood boards of the gallery’s original floor and the contours of an oil refinery plant in southwest Detroit, Hoffman carves and paints into a massive vinyl stock image of fiery Michigan Maple trees, revealing a contrasting silhouette of a warped Marathon Oil set ablaze.
“In April of 2013, three thousand residents were ordered to leave their homes and evacuate the area due to this fire – one of many incidents related to the oil, coal, automobile, and water waste industries polluting the surrounding area and affecting the health and livelihoods of the people who live there.”
Her paintings and installations are layered geographies, in which these fragments of cultural objects are chromatically twisted and blended into complex wholes.
“My work is informed by the conversations that occur concerning these sites.”
Taking inspiration from her ancestors emphasizing Philippine weaving and Jewish storytelling traditions, along with traditional landscape painting techniques from her academic training, she interweaves images with refuse to reveal seamless yet textured transcultural contradictions.
Disrupting visual perception, her scraps of materials take on new life, becoming a vehicle of territorial reclamation and spiritual agency for the artist amid the pressures of environmental shift on the present-day planet.
Work created by Camille Hoffman.
Besides Historic Futures, her current and upcoming exhibitions include the BRONX CALLING: The Fifth AIM Biennial at The Bronx Museum of the Arts, opening November 10 through March 20, 2022; and a Solo Exhibition at San Luis Obispo Museum of Art (SLOMA), opening May 27, 2022.
For more information on Camille’s work, please visit Camille Hoffman’s official website.
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