Rising artist Holly Lowen creates hyperrealistic paintings that explore the raw competitive instincts of animals, specifically focusing on chickens and roosters. In her Tribeca studio, she has produced works depicting roosters in mid-flight and tumbling, drawing on the long history of cockfighting and human-animal relationships dating back to 1500 B.C.E.
Lowen's work matters because it uses hyperrealistic painting to examine the tension between domestication and wild instinct, tapping into broader themes of competition and human nature. As a rising artist, her focus on this subject matter brings attention to the often-overlooked cruelty in human-animal interactions while showcasing technical mastery in contemporary painting.