Siri Hollander

Born in 1959 in New York City, NY, Siri Hollander moved to Andalusia, Spain in 1962. Art is in her blood. Her artistic ability stems from her parents; her father, a painter, and her mother, a published writer and poet. Siri saw her first horse at the age of three and from that moment, she lived and breathed the majestic animal. At the age of 7, she began sculpting in clay, experimenting with tiny but intricate animals. She would sit in her father’s studio in southern Spain and began to teach herself how to maneuver and sculpt with different materials. By the age of 17, Siri began to experiment with larger scale figurative and horse sculptures in steel and cement. Siri is a self-taught sculptor even down to the materials she uses. She developed her technique of using mixed media by watching her family build their home in Pizarra, Spain as a child. The cement she uses today was at one point the only material she was familiar with. One of her first horses was a 20’ rising stallion for the Malaga airport in Andalucia, Spain. By the age of 19, she was traveling around Europe to apprentice with established sculptors. The adventure somehow brought her to Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was in rural New Mexico that Siri found her home, perhaps because of the similarities of the landscape and culture with southern Spain. Siri settled in Ojo Sarco where she raised her four children, surrounded by horses and countless other animals. Her art is created with an armature made of steel rods, welded to shape and built upon with recycled steel from old 1950’s trucks found in arroyos in the New Mexican countryside while she is out riding on one of her horses. The sculpture is completed by applying a cement mixture which gives a uniquely rough texture that has become her signature. The process is spontaneous, rarely using a plan or model. Siri believes they actually create themselves. In recent years, she has been working in steel, pencil-like outlines of horses, reminiscent of shadows. These are intended to be placed with the sky as an ever changing backdrop. The effect is subtle yet quite dramatic.