Unusual Suspects showcased the work of Holly Roberts, an artist who challenges our expectations of photography and the possibilities of the medium. Initially working as a painter, Roberts began to explore photography as a way to create studies for her paintings. In 1980, while living on the Zuni reservation in New Mexico, Roberts started painting directly on her photographs. This approach transformed her photographs from straightforward images into rich objects merged within paint.

The American Southwest continues to inspire and inform Roberts’ work. Guided by her imagination and emotional responses to the landscape, Roberts breathes additional life and narrative into her photographs, turning clouds, birds, snakes, gravel, and trees into compelling works of art. Her finished pieces are deeply layered, both in a physical sense and in the stories that are woven by her intentional choice of characters, scenery, color palette, and title. Roberts masterfully brings together ideas of mortality and birth, longing and comfort, spirituality and humanity, disguised by humor or lighthearted aesthetic.