4me4you recently visited Pace Gallery to see Overview Effect, a new exhibition by Loie Hollowell.
Rather than describing these moments directly, Hollowell uses abstract forms, colour, and repeated shapes to express what contractions feel like from the inside.
The result is work that feels both personal and universal, rooted in the body, but also reaching toward something bigger.
Over the past decade, Hollowell has built a distinctive visual language using curved, symmetrical forms and soft gradients of colour. Her paintings often draw on recurring shapes like the mandorla and other symbolic forms, creating compositions that feel balanced, rhythmic, and almost meditative.
Much of her work is autobiographical. Earlier pieces explored themes of conception, while more recent works reflect her own experiences of pregnancy, birth, and motherhood. In this exhibition, those ideas continue to develop, shaped by both the physical reality of giving birth and the emotional states that come with it.
The title Overview Effect comes from a term used by astronauts to describe the feeling of seeing Earth from space, a sudden sense of clarity, connection, and perspective. Hollowell relates this to moments during labour when, between contractions, she felt briefly outside of her own body, observing what was happening from a distance.
The paintings themselves are built around pairs of rounded forms that seem to expand and echo outward. Their surfaces pulse with colour, deep reds, yellows, and blues set against softer, muted tones, suggesting both intensity and calm.
From a distance, the works appear precise and almost geometric; up close, they reveal layers of texture and movement.
Together, these paintings connect the intimate experience of the body with a wider sense of space and awareness. They reflect on how something deeply personal can also feel vast, shifting between physical sensation and a more expansive, almost out-of-body perspective.
