Fred Holland's drawings comprised of layers of dried onion slices, a brilliant red wall embedded with thousands of black-eyed peas, and a small tree covered with found pennies examines human histories through the substitution of objects and materials. Pulling away layers of an onion skin or sifting through a pile of pennies may suggest the interlacing and overlays of human stories and exchanges, particularly of the history of African American migration, of leaving and searching. The impact of Holland's work is through viewers' recogniion of the complexities of our personal, familial, and social histories.

Fred Holland received a 1999-2000 Creative Capital Award for visual arts. He has had solo exhibitions at Circa Gallery in Montreal, the New York Public Library 125th St. branch, both in 2001, Gallery X, Harlem, NY in 2000 and 1998. His work has been included in group exhibitions at Brattleboro Museum, Vermont, Exit Art, New York, NY in 1999, and The Drawing Center, New York, NY.