CrikHoller is the collaborative name of Appalachian artists Ernie-Roby Tomic and Ali Printz that use their combined backgrounds in painting, sculpture, printmaking, and technology to create immersive installations that interweave Appalachian history and the contemporary moment, focused on environmental issues and the ongoing discrimination the region faces.
Their work is dedicated to elevating the often overlooked voices of Appalachia by highlighting the region’s cultural richness and resilience through art. Their work advocates for the preservation of Appalachian heritage and raises awareness of the environmental and social injustices the region continues to face, fostering a stronger artistic voice rooted in advocacy and storytelling.
Their work is dedicated to elevating the often overlooked voices of Appalachia by highlighting the region’s cultural richness and resilience through art. Their work advocates for the preservation of Appalachian heritage and raises awareness of the environmental and social injustices the region continues to face, fostering a stronger artistic voice rooted in advocacy and storytelling.
CRIK HOLLER IS:
Ali Printz
As a scholar, curator, and painter, Printz’s work addresses Appalachian culture and its multilayered environmental histories and mixes elements of craft, throw away culture, and technology in combination with historic photographic sources. She received both a BA in art history and a BFA in painting from West Virginia University in 2009 and an MA from Sotheby’s Institute of Art in New York in 2012. She is currently finishing her doctoral degree in art history at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture in Philadelphia.
Her work has been shown both nationally and internationally and in various venues throughout the Appalachian region. Her recent projects include Appalachian Extraction collaborator Ernie Roby-Tomic and the public mural, Carrie Williams: Saint of Coketon at Buxton and Landstreet Gallery in West Virginia in 2020. Her recent exhibitions include Appalachian Spring, a traveling solo show throughout Appalachia, which took place from 2018-19 at various venues, Du-Good, a retrospective of printmaker Leslie Diuguid at Subliminal Projects, Los Angeles in 2021, inclusion in the group exhibition Women’s Work: Redefining Appalachian Traditions at the University of Kentucky, Lexington in 2022, and her upcoming solo exhibition, Into the Mountains at the William King Museum of Art in spring 2023.
Her work has been shown both nationally and internationally and in various venues throughout the Appalachian region. Her recent projects include Appalachian Extraction collaborator Ernie Roby-Tomic and the public mural, Carrie Williams: Saint of Coketon at Buxton and Landstreet Gallery in West Virginia in 2020. Her recent exhibitions include Appalachian Spring, a traveling solo show throughout Appalachia, which took place from 2018-19 at various venues, Du-Good, a retrospective of printmaker Leslie Diuguid at Subliminal Projects, Los Angeles in 2021, inclusion in the group exhibition Women’s Work: Redefining Appalachian Traditions at the University of Kentucky, Lexington in 2022, and her upcoming solo exhibition, Into the Mountains at the William King Museum of Art in spring 2023.
Ernie Roby-Tomic
Ernie Roby-Tomić is an audiovisual, installation, performance artist, and musician hailing from the heavenly hollers of the Appalachian region. His works are a coalescence of emergent 3D technologies, video games, energy extraction industries, workers’ rights, and sleep research.
By mining data from video games and Geographic Information Systems, Roby-Tomić binds electric fantasies to the materiality of the minerals mined for power, and the axes of labor entangled in its extraction. Material in video games and geo-specific topologies are recontextualized as signifiers of fatalism in geo-specific locations known as “sacrificial zones”. His work published in 2020, Reclamation : Exposing Coal Seams and Appalachian Fatalism with Digital Apparatuses in the VIZ Nordic Journal of Artistic Research was awarded Research Catalogue Exposition of the Year.
Roby-Tomić holds a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from West Virginia University in sculpture and printmaking and a Master’s of Fine Arts from the University of Florida in Art + Technology.
Since 2020, he has lived in Northern Norway as a freelance art producer working in virtual reality development, scientific visualization, film, and virtual production. Currently he is working with the Sámi University of Applied Sciences in Guovdageaidnu, Norway with the Sámi AI Laboraty, developing technical projects and pipelines within the indigenous education and creative industries.
