Jamie Holman Lancashire, United Kingdom
Holman works with traditional making practices and processes, that he subverts with contemporary content, challenging both the currency of craft as a nostalgic strategy for making, and our perceptions of what constitutes ‘heritage.’ Holman is a non executive director of The National Festival of Making and is artist in residence for the British Textiles Biennial 2019.
Early works were predominantly in video, audio and performance, before developing into a broader, multi disciplinary practice that now includes photography, print, sculpture and text. Holman was a founding member of the music/artist/writers collective tompaulin, who released three LP’s, seven singles and recorded two John Peel sessions between 2000 and 2007. In 2008 Holman began writing for The Saatchi Gallery Magazine Art and Music, and is now a contributing editor working under David Sheppard and Gemma De Cruz. Art and Music is a quarterly magazine that is distributed internationally, while remaining the in house publication of The Saatchi Gallery London. In 2015 Holman began making new works informed by his fathers three tours of duty as a member of the British Army in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Using his fathers photographic archive of “The Troubles,” Holman has produced works that explore the similarities in landscape, ephemera and class in both Northern Ireland and Northern England. Works from this collection have been exhibited at The Royal College of Art and have been published in The Saatchi Gallery Magazine Art and Music and long listed, exhibited and published in the Aesthetica Art Prize Anthology 2016 – “Future Now, 100 international emerging artists.” These works have recently been presented by Darbyshires London, in a solo exhibition in 2016 that was sponsored by Darbyshires Frame Makers in partnership with The Saatchi Gallery Magazine Art and Music. In January 2017, Holman became a commissioned artist for the ground breaking ‘Art In Manufacturing’ project, as part of the first ever National Festival of Making. The commission and residency that followed was supported by arts commissioners Super Slow Way and was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Holman was one of nine specially commissioned artists researching industrial production techniques and 160 years of making heritage. The resulting artworks and performances were revealed as part of the festival with a solo exhibition, a digital moving image commission and two choral performances in Blackburn Cathedral. Holman exhibited during the Venice Biennale, at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi – VISIONS, from September 14 to November 26, 2017, before showing new works at Jorge Jurado Gallery, Bogotà, Columbia, from November 1st to 30th.
Selected works from his 2017 ‘Art in Manufacturing’ commission, were exhibited as part of ‘Art in Manufacturing – Legacy’ at Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery; May 12th to August 4th 2018
Jamie Holman is a non executive director of The National festival of Making CIC, a director of PRISM Contemporary gallery and studios, and is currently artist in residence for The British Textiles Biennial 2019
