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artist, writer, gardener.
Holly Foskett-Barnes’ interdisciplinary practice takes seed in her allotment, on walks and in field research, working with sculpture, text, photography, watercolours and works on paper. Her work places importance on a devotional relationship with place through everyday ritualistic practices and site-specific intervention.
Foskett-Barnes’ ceremonial relationship with materialism is a way of communing with the world around her. She considers the landscape as an extension of her studio, with gardening and walking as integral to the artistic process as drawing and painting. As an Artist-Writer, writing is an intrinsic part of Foskett-Barnes’ process, taking the form of textual works, essays, journals, poetry and documentation. Writing often precedes visual artworks and accompanies exhibiting works on display.
Works evidence her ongoing interest in ritualism, responding to ordinary, everyday happenings that offer entry to more than human perspectives, cultural signifiers, and collective relationships to land and place. Foskett-Barnes engages with seasonal, folkloric rituals that observe lunar phases and perennial cycles, tracing cultural-memory and archival (re)imaginings. Works arise through contemplative time-based activity, often exploring repetition, which speak to her dedicated background in Buddhist practice. Her work is a meditative meeting place, a site of enquiry, introspection and remembrance.
Biography
Holly Foskett-Barnes (b. 1990) was born and educated in London/Oxfordshire, UK. She moved to the south west to study Contemporary Fine Art at Dartington College of Arts, later merged with Falmouth University, graduating with First Class Honours in 2012. Foskett-Barnes graduated with a postgraduate degree in Religious Arts of Asia at the School Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) in 2016, specialising in early Buddhist art from the Himalayas and South East Asia, undertaking field research in Nepal. She has had a solo exhibition in Dali (Yunnan, China) in 2011 and a first UK solo show at HOURS (Bristol, UK) in 2024. Holly lives and works from her studio in Bristol where she facilitates nature connection workshops and pursues her artistic practice.
Education
2015-2016
MA Religious Arts of Asia, School of Oriental and African Studies (London, UK)
2009-2012
BA Contemporary Fine Art, Dartington College of Arts / Falmouth University (Devon / Cornwall, UK)
Artist residencies
2024
The Hide (Stroud, UK)
2022
Community, Architecture, Migration, Participation (Athens, Greece)
2011
Rouge et Noir Gallery (Dali, China)
Awards, funding & memberships
Present
Spike Island Associates
Present
a-n Artists
2024
Arts Council England, Develop Your Creative Practice (DYCP) funding
2016
City of London, Combined Education Charity grant
Exhibitions, talks & events
2024
a place to pray, HOURS gallery (Bristol, UK) - solo
2022
People's Art Fair, Republic of Stokes Croft (Bristol, UK) - group show
2019
Curator for Trophies of Empire: Traces and Legacies, Arnolfini (Bristol, UK) - event
2019
Curator for Threads, Spike Island Test Space (Bristol, UK) - exhibition
2016
Speaker for Southeast Asian Symposium at Khalili Lecture Theatre, SOAS (London, UK) - talk
2015
Film Pro Lates (London, UK) - group show
2013
LINES, Strand Gallery (London, UK) - group show
2012
Performer for Art of Change: New Directions from China, Hayward Gallery (London, UK) - exhibition
2012
Fish Factory (Falmouth, UK) - group show
2011
Mother Nature, Mother China, Rouge et Noir Artspace (Dali, China) - solo