Holly Graham
- Associate Lecturer
- Print MA
Holly Graham is a London-based artist and researcher, whose work looks at ways in which memory, narrative and fictions shape collective histories.
Holly is an Associate Lecturer on the Print MA and Arts & Humanities MFA programmes, providing academic and pastoral support through one-to-one tutorials, group tutorials, crits, and seminars.
Key details
School, Centre or Area
Gallery
More information
Research interests
Research interests centre around capacities for archives and museum collections to function as unfixed spaces to be interrogated, disrupted, tapped into, and activated. Bound up in this lies an interest in recording-mechanisms, documents, evidence, and processes of editing; concerns rooted around a commitment to responsible story-telling and amplifying quiet histories
Much of her work considers ways in which collective histories and identities are formed; via slippery and subjective methods of remembering, and malleable narrative practices.
She has been a member of The Fiction Group at the RCA, holding an interest in the critical space that writing somewhere between art theory and fiction can open up; and has contributed to programming via RCA research catalyst Spatial Value.
She also holds an interest in artist-led community programming. She is a Co-founder of Cypher BILLBOARD, which launched in 2017, running until 2024; and held a position as Co-Director at Turf Projects between 2021-22.
She is currently undertaking a research degree at CREAM, University of Westminster titled ‘Tending to Black Life, Death, and Resistance in the Community Archive: Artist as Archivist / Activist / Care-Worker’.
Practice
Working across audio, text, still and moving image, and sculptural forms, Holly’s work often employs motifs inherent to the medium of print – duplication, traces, material degradation – mirroring formal qualities often present within attempts to pin down or fix resistant and amorphous narratives. The work she makes is heavily research-driven and is often specific to particular sites and localised contexts.
Recent solo projects include commissions with: Deptford X, London (2023); Locales, Rome (2023); Up Projects & Barnet Council (2023); TACO!, London (2021–23); Skelf, Online (2022); Robert Young Antiques, London (2021); Gaada, Shetland (2020); Goldsmiths CCA, Online (2020); and Southwark Park Galleries, London (2020). She was awarded a scholarship at the British School in Rome for 2023.
Awards
Sainsbury Scholarship, British School at Rome, Rome, 2023
West Dean Tapestry Commission Open Call – Proposal Commendation, 2016
Augustus Martin Award for Innovation in Print, 2014
Thames Barrier Print Studio Graduate Award, 2014
20/21 Art Fair Artist Award – Shortlisted, 2013
Liz Daplyn Travel Award, 2011
Oxford Old Students' Scholarship for Academic Achievement, 2010
Current and recent projects
‘Tending to Black Life, Death, and Resistance in the Community Archive: Artist as Archivist / Activist / Care-Worker’, 2025-29, a research project with CREAM, University of Westminster, building on the ‘ACTION’ project to explore methods of embedding systems of care into art practices engaged in memory work; with particular attention to racialised violence in the archive.
‘ACTION!’, 2021-25, a research residency & public commission in response to Thamesmead Community Archives, TACO!, London; exploring anti-racist community organising in Thamesmead and its surrounding areas in the early 1990s.
‘The Warp, The Weft, The Wake’, 2023-25, for 20/20 a research residency & commission with UAL Decolonising Art Institute & Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester; considering histories and legacies of the cotton industry in Manchester.
‘An almost varnishy dipped black’, 2023, a research residency with the British School at Rome; looking at the motif of the ‘blackamoor’ in Baroque Italian furniture design.
Publications, exhibitions, other outcomes
Publications:
Graham, H. (2024). ‘Slow Looking: Q&A with Holly Graham’ – interview with Amouraé Bhola-Chin in Famzine 4, published by The Family Museum
Graham, H. (2023). Specially placed to uphold a load. In: STRIKE. London: Forma, pp.4.
Graham, H. (2023). Collective Digestive. In: Artist Kitchen Salon Zine. London: iniva, pp. 26-43.
Graham, H. (2022). Weemins Wark: No winder you canna catch fish. In: E. McManus, ed., We Axe For What We Want. Shetland: Gaada, pp 100-105.
Graham, H. (2021). After Harry Jacobs: Green Fingers II. In: N. Bird and M. Jenner, eds., DreamsTimeFree #2 Soft Tissue. London: TACO!, pp 89-98.
Graham, H. (2020). Be/hold/en. In: S. Kivland and R. Jagoe, eds., On Care. London: MA BIBLIOTHEQUE, pp 76-86.
Graham, H. (2020). To Us It Just Looks Like A Lemon. Online: Southwark Park Galleries.
Graham, H. (2020). Obituary. In: m. apena, R. Farkas, and R. Pilston, eds., How To Sleep Faster, Issue 11, Winter 2020. London: Arcadia Missa, pp. 6-20.
Graham, H. (2017). After Harry Jacobs: Green Fingers. In: Art Licks, Issue 20, Spring 2017. London: Art Licks, pp. 37-43.
Graham, H. and Chong, W., eds. (2014). Thinking Through Print: Perspectives from the Studio. London: Royal College of Art.
Exhibitions
(2025-26) The Warp / The Weft / The Wake, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester
(2024-26) Stop and Smell the Flowers, public commission for Edgware Station Road, with UP Projects & Barnet Council, London
(2024) THREADS: Textiles & Tall Tales, 422 Arts, Manchester
(2024) In House: Ain Bailey & Holly Graham, Studio Voltaire, London
(2024) Holding Cosmic Dust, curated by Hot Desque, Corinium Museum, Cirencester
(2024) What We Have Become, Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archive, London
(2023) On the verge of something very big, Deptford X, London.
(2023) Sustaining a Weight, Lateral, Rome.
(2023) A Site For…, UP Projects & Barnet Council, London.
(2023) On the Meaning of Gossip, British School at Rome, Rome.
(2022) Haptic Registers, Tender Images, Sonic Frequencies, Skelf, Online.
(2022) FAMILY LINES, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Online.
(2022) Weemin’s Wark, Glasgow Women’s Library.
(2021) Abducting the Priestess Might Solve Your Crops, Ergo Collective, Athens.
(2021) Within which all this is suspended: Acts of betrayal, Contemporary Collaborations, London.
(2020) While the Piled Cumuli Sail Galleon-Like Above, Barratt David Wilson Homes for Cane Hill Park, London.
(2020) To Us It Just Looks Like A Lemon, Southwark Park Galleries, London
(2020) No Winder You Canna Catch Fish, Gaada, Shetland
(2020) #FridayFact, Goldsmiths CCA, Online
(2019) Odds, TOMA, Southend.
(2019) On Board II, Espacio Vista, Madrid.
(2019) Its Only Bondage Was the Circling Sky, Fungus Press, Croydon.
(2019) BOUNDS, Skelf, Online.
(2019) The Oval Window, Gerald Moore Gallery, London.
(2018) FAKERS, Thames-Side Studios Gallery, London.
(2018) The Romance of Flowers, Kingsgate Workshops, London.
(2018) Common Third, Copperfield, London.
(2018) Borderless, LATARKA, Budapest.
(2018) On my island none of this would be true, Arebyte, London.
(2018) Carefully Cleansed of Labour and Softened by Cooking, Compressor, London.
(2018) Leaning Against or Holding, Skelf, Online.
(2018) Sweet Swollen, Jerwood Visual Arts: Project Space, London.
(2017) After Harry Jacobs: Outside, Cypher Billboard, London.
(2017) House Work, 53 Beck Road, London.
(2017) Altai in Residence; Experiments in Collective Practice, Dyson Gallery: Royal College of Art, London.
(2016) Backdrop II, Bond House Projects with Art Licks Weekend, London.
(2016) Backdrop I, Cypher Space, Berlin.
(2015) Studio: 004, Glassyard, London.
(2015) Flat-Pack, The Greenroom, Krakow.
External collaborations
(2025-29) Research Student – CREAM, University of Westminster, in partnership with TACO! & the Black Cultural Archives
(2026) LIVE Unit Collaborative Partner – TACO!
(2025) LIVE Unit Collaborative Partner – Turf Projects
(2023-24) Constellations° Cohort 2023 – UP Projects & Flat Time House
(2021-22) Trustee – Kingsgate Workshops
(2017-22) Co-founder / Curator – Cypher BILLBOARD
(2021-22) Co-Director & Programme Lead – Turf Projects
(2017-21) Artist Development Lead – Turf Projects