APT documentary to highlight Nall

Published 12:00 am Saturday, January 9, 2010

Internationally known artist and Troy native son, Nall Hollis (Nall), will be the subject of an Alabama Public Television (APT) documentary at 8 p.m. Sunday Jan. 10.

Nall said he was interviewed by APT several times during an exhibition in Birmingham.

“I’m not sure what the focus of the documentary will be,” he said.

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“I asked if I would be able to see the documentary before it aired but I was told that wasn’t allowed. But I would think that it will be a retrospective on my work.”

Nall said 2009 was a very busy year for him and, it looks as if so will be 2010.

His “Out of the Box – Works by Nall” exhibition is featured at the Octavia Gallery in New Orleans. The exhibit explores symbolism and surrealism with no boundaries. “Out of the Box” will close on Jan. 22 and then be shown at the Metairie County Club in Metairie, La.

“Out of the Box” will also be exhibited at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Ga. and later at locations in Atlanta.

“My Agenda Book for 2010 was the subject of a recent book signing in Birmingham,” Nall said. “The books were well received. I only had a thousand available and they were gone in one week.”

Nall has several commission pieces that will occupy much of his time in the coming weeks.

“I will be doing a series of pieces of the swamps around Venice, La.,” he said.

“They will have leather frames which are very suitable for those works. I’m also doing Alabama camellia designs for a set of porcelain. There will be eight different camellias and the porcelain will first be offered at Bloomingdale’s in New York City and later at Bloomingdale’s stores across the country.”

Nall said he especially enjoys doing the porcelain because the designs are scanned from previous works.

“I take a detail from a painting and it is scanned to the desired size, gold splatter is added and the design for the dinnerware is completed,” he said.

Whether Nall’s earlier porcelain pieces will be included in the APT documentary, he’s not sure.

“I will be anxious to see the documentary because it will be interesting to see which of my works have been chosen for a public viewing piece like this.”