Stephen Holland

Stephen Holland is one of the nation's foremost contemporary sport artists today. Holland says, "I like the drama of Sports the way you see it on a TV closeup — like a slow motion replay. I like to freeze-frame the image and display it in everone's living room." Capturing the fury, emotion and drama of sports is what Stephen Holland does best. Being trained in fine art, he brings classical form to this universal subject. His paintings, lithographs and serigraphs are in private and corporate collections around the world, including the Staples Center Downtown Los Angeles. His traditional education in art, years of experience and his love of sports made Holland an obvious choice for the 1993 Sport Artist of the Year Award.

Nothing has come easy for Holland. As a child, he was handicapped and forced to watch his family and friends play sports, while the steel braces he wore on his legs prevented him from attending a normal school. But Holland used his handicap to heighten his sensitivity and develop his talent as an artist. His talent truly blossomed while attending a special high school that devoted half of every day to art studies and later, after graduating from the Art Students League, the School of Visual Arts and Pratt Institute in New York.

Unable to play sports, Holland first began sketching his friends as they played outdoors. As a young painter, he couldn't afford live models, so he drew from boxing magazines. There he saw the male form in all its power and glory. Reading the articles in the magazines conveyed to him the determination and hard work that nay athlete must have to be a winner. Using this discovery gave Holland an inspiration to put as much discipline, devotion and determination into his own work.

In 1989, with his reputation expanding within the sport art world, Holland was named "Official Artist" of the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League. His art regularly appears on the covers of the Kings' GameNight magazine, and the front offices at the Los Angeles Forum look like a one-man show of his work. Forever pleased with his work, the Kings commissioned Holland to produce thirteen paintings and a series of lithographs featuring Wayne Gretzky, Luc Robitaille, goalie Kelly Hrudey, Paul Coffey and others to commemorate various record-breaking performances.

Holland is best known for his outstanding portrait of "Muhammad Ali." Originally commissioned for the Silver Anniversary of the Victor Awards (honoring Ali as "Athlete of the Century"), the painting was soon selected by Ali's wife as the image to represent him for his 50th birthday party. Giant posters of the painting flanked the landmark Wiltern Theatre in Hollywood, as thousands attended Ali's televised tribute.

Today, Holland lives with his wife, J'Nelle in their home/studio in Southern California. He is currently working on a new series of celebrity portraits to be printed as signed, limited editions serigraphs on canvas, such as "Ali-The Greatest," "Sandy Koufax" and the newly released "Michael Jordan."

View a slideshow of Holland's artwork.