Architectural Digest | Young Black Artists Speak About the Role of Art in This Moment

BY NICK MAFI

Jammie Holmes is one of those artists whose work is so charged with emotion, containing the raw feelings to a single canvas appears to be a feat in and of itself. For the 36-year old artist, who currently has a studio in Dallas, one question permeates through all of his work: “When can I live like you?” explains Holmes. In discussing his work Endurance, in which a Black man is giving another Black man a haircut, Holmes explains why he created a mural of flowers behind the seated subject. “I put flowers there because I wanted to tone down the Black in us. I’m six-foot-three, bearded with tattoos, and I love jewelry. I wanted us to look safer. It’s sad that we have to live like that.” Holmes made international headlines when on the last Saturday in May, the artist created a massive work that caught the attention of New Yorkers, and the world beyond. Holmes produced a banner and attached it to a small airplane that flew around New York City. The black-and-white banner read, “They’re Going to Kill Me,” which were among the last words of George Floyd.