Lonnie Holley is an American artist, art educator and musician from Birmingham, Alabama. Born Lonnie Bradley Holley in 1950, he is sometimes known as the Sand Man. He is associated with experimental music, soul, blues, psychedelic and jazz, and his wider work also sits within African American art, folk art, outsider art and found-object practice.

Art and early life

Holley is best known for assemblages and immersive environments made from found materials. He is born the seventh of 27 children and spends much of his early life in difficult circumstances, including work from the age of five at a drive-in movie theatre, as well as washing dishes and cooking. He also lives in a whiskey house, on the state fairgrounds and in several foster homes. He begins devoting himself to improvisational creativity in 1979, and his work develops across drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, performance and sound.

Music career

Holley’s professional music career begins in 2006 with improvisational vocal recordings made in an Alabama church at the urging of Matt Arnett, using only a keyboard and a microphone. His music and lyrics are improvised, changing with each performance and recording rather than following a fixed studio process.

Albums and collaborations

His debut album, Just Before Music, appears in 2012 on Dust-to-Digital. Keeping a Record of It follows in 2013, and MITH is released on Jagjaguwar in 2018. In 2021 he releases Broken Mirror: A Selfie Reflection, a collaboration with Matthew E. White.

Creative practice

Holley’s visual work is described as a process of building, dismantling and reusing materials, with elements from earlier pieces carried into new works. In a similar way, the layers in his music develop through long-term experimentation and change over time.