Five Easy Pieces I, after Stravinsky (detail) oil on canvas, 40x40cm (16x16")
CHRIS HOLLEY : CV email: [email protected] Fine Art BA (Hons)
2025 July/Aug: summer season, visiting arts tutor at Guildford Institute: illustrated art talks for adults/children's sessions.
" June: open call exhibition The Shape of Now, Zari Gallery, Newman Street, Fitzrovia, London, curator Georgina Dhillon
" open call Gardens of Life exhibition (1st series) Posk Gallery, Hammersmith, curatorJola Maria Mroszvzyk
" May: group stARTle exhibition at Farnham Potteries, Farnham
" " : Joining Noisy Women collective in multi-arts performative event, Leigh-on-Sea (see below)
" Feb: Bangor Music Festival, artist in residence (see below)
" BEEP catalogue of longlisted artists selected for 2024 biennial exhibition "I won't stay in a world without love."
LIVE IMPRO PAINTING/LIVE MUSIC
2025 May: Joining Noisy Women collective in multi-arts performative event, Leigh-on-Sea www.noisywomenpresent.co.uk/
Feb: Artist in Residence, the 25th Bangor Music Festival of new, contemporary and experimental music:
2022 July Live Painting of flamenco Performance at Battersea Spanish (Spanish and Latin Cultural Centre)
batterseaspanish.com/events/annual-student-flamenco-performance/
2022 Thurs 17 June at restaurant 106 Baker Street in the sound/art lab, live painting vibes of DJ Pedro Suave on canvas welcoming and spurring on keen private party guests to add their own creative mark. With participating artist Lizy Bending (in botanicals room) for EVENTSATHOLMES/ www.coalitionpresents.com/
Feeling the Beat:
2022 May: live visual art/music/ poetry workshop with accompanying 'painting music' joint exhibition
April: live multi-arts performance " " " " " "
2021: Artist in /residence - Radford Rhythm and Blues Festival, Somerset
FILMING
2021: TV appearance in art slot in Great British Railways BBC TV series with Michael Portillo in episode broadcast Friday 30 August, BBC2.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7kDjLYem8Q&list=PLxQ8F81rvGmdk53Yk6bsUH-A84B_7opqk&index=4
AWARD
2012 Art Jazzed Up: international competition to listen to submit a CD design for selected jazz music, Trinity School, Croydon, artist Alan Carlyon Smith and jazz radio broadcasterAlban Low.
JOINT COLLABORATIONS
2023 May/June: Phenomenal Female Exhibition, The Bookery Gallerie, Marylebone
2022 Cocktails and Sensory evening
June - with artist Lizy Bending at restaurant 106 Baker Street, me in sound/art lab, live-painting DJ Pedro Suave music and interacting with many private party guests, 6-9pm.
Music the Muse at the Menuhin:
May - July: artists Aurelie Freoua, Gwen Kassenaar and Chris Holley wow concert-goers at this prestigious venue each with their similar and yet oh so different approaches to expressing music via painting.
2022 Feeling the Beat:
April/May: joint exhibition accompanying workshop and performance) South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell
April: live multi-arts performance with accompanying 'painting music' exhibition
May: live visual art/music/ poetry workshop " " " " "
2021 Feeling the Beat:
October: Workshop - artists and musicians share with students how to express live music in their own in-the-moment art
2021 Feeling the Beat:
July: Painting live music online seminar and history of art relating to music with artist Aurelie Freoua and musicians, led by curator Loucia Manopoulou at South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell.
2021: Feeling the Beat: March to end June: virtual exhibition: Aurelie Freoua/Chris Holley - paintings about music, dance and poetry www.southhillpark.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/
2021 Feeling the Beat:
February: Painting live music online and In-Conversation with artist Aurelie Freoua and musicians, led by curator Loucia Manopoulou at South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell. See event recording at www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx-Cr_2vUXQ
EXHIBITIONS since 2012
EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS
2021 Threshold, d Contemporary, Grafton Street, Mayfair, London
2017/18 Rhythm Runs Riot, The International Yehudi Menuhin Music School, Surrey
2016 Rhythm Runs Rife, Music School, Wellington College, Berks, invited by Edward Twohig,
Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers/trustee, Bankside Gallery, London
2012 AWARD WIN: Art Jazzed Up: international exhibition and competition to listen to and submit a CD design for selected jazz music,
Trinity School, Croydon, Alan Carlyon Smith/Alban Low.
2012 Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London, my painting selected by panel member and abstract artist, Albert Irwin
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 Music the Muse, abstract music paintings, Bangor Music Festival
2017/18 Rhythm Runs Riot, The Yehudi Menuhin Music School: Concert Hall, Cobham
2016 Rhythm Runs Rife, Music School, Wellington College, Berks, invitation by Edward Twohig, Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-
Printmakers/trustee, Bankside Gallery, London
2015 Interpreting Terpsichore, Peacock Gallery, Reading
2014 Rhythm and Resonance, Henley Business School
2013 Dancer, Henley Studios, Duke Street, Henley-on-Thames
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 stARTLE The Pottery, Farnham., jamshac Collective
2024 Routes, Casa Branca, Portugal
2022 Feeling the Beat, (collaborative exhibition accompanying workshop and performance) South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell
2021 Made It, The Pottery, Farnham., jamshac Collective
2019 Worlds Apart, Lewisham Art House, jamshac Collective
2018 Standing in the Light, Guildford Cathedral,KAN KAN Collective
2017 Threshold, Espacio Gallery, E2, KAN KAN Collective,
2016 Naturally Speaking, South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell, KAN KAN Collective, Bracknell,
2016, Melting Pot, Wellington College, Berks, KAN KAN Collective
2016 Other Worlds, Riverhouse Art Centre Gallery, Walton-on-Thames, Jamshac Collective,
2014 Ballets Russes Celebration Exhibition, Shaw Gallery, Trinity Whitgift School, Croydon
2012 Weather Art and Music Festival, Reading
OPEN EXHIBITIONS
2025: Summer: Gardens of Life exhibition. Details to follow - Jola Maria Mroszvzyk
2024: Beep Painting Biennial Exhibition: to date my paintings (on stipulated musical theme) long listed, short list results awaited
2024 The Secret Salon IV, artist led Andree Adley, Peckham Safe House, Peckham
2024: The Dark Side, artist led Boomer Gallery, London Bridge
2023: Derelict, Peckham Safe House, Uncovered Collective
2023 Southwark Park Open Exhibition
2023 Heat, artist led studio: Rupturexibit, Hampton Wick, Kingston, London
2022 Inside the Cage (in support of MIND) Blue House Yard, Wood Green, London N22
2022 Contemporary, Boomer Gallery, Tooley Street, London Bridge
2021 What is Art, Boomer Gallery, Tooley Street, London Bridge
2021 Threshold, d Contemporary, Grafton Street, Mayfair
2020 Open 2020, Littlehampton Museum (virtual exhibition)
2020 Bringing Us Together, South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell
2020 Be Connected, Canterbury Museum Art Gallery
2019 100 Exhibition, Steamship Artist Project Space, Blackwall, London, Steamship artists' space
2019 Connections, Espacio Gallery, London E1
2019 Summer Salon, Islington Arts Factory
2019 Ultra, Bargehouse, Bankside, London, Free Painters and Sculptors' Collective
2018 Fusion IV, The Cult House, Candid Arts, Islington,
2017 Fusion III, Cult House, Candid Arts, Islington
2017 Disponere, Fifth Base Gallery, Brick Lane
2016 Fusion, Espacio Gallery, London E1, KAN KAN Collective
2016 Red, Chroma Collections Artist Space, Peckham
2016 Summer Exhibition, Exhibit Here, Menier Gallery, London
2015 Open, Free Painters and Sculptors
2014 Art Weeks, The Jam Factory Arts Centre, Oxford
2014 Resonance, Bath Fringe Arts Festival
2013 Resonance, The Ark, Basingstoke
2013 Summer Open, South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell
2012 The Women's Art Show, Fairfields Art Centre, Basingstoke
2012 Rising Stars, New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham
2012 Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London, selected by panel member and abstract artist, Albert Irwin
ART TALKS
RESIDENCIES
2024 Other Lands, Other Sounds art/music collaboration residency, Casa Branca, Portugal
2021 Avon, UK, artist in residence - Radford Rhythm and Blues Festival, Nr Bath
2019 Panama, living with the indigenous Guna Yala people La Wayaka international residency, https://www.lawayakacurrent.com
2015 Sicily, international murals residency, http://granitimurales.org
COMMISSIONS
Berkshire, Oxon, Surrey and the USA.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2022 LandEscape online magazine special issue issuu.com/landescapeartpress/docs/vol-70
2019 WOMEN: Inspirational Quotes and Creative Responses
2019 Artemis Poetry Magazine: article by poet Myra Schneider re our mutually inspired work. The creative alliance endures...
2019 Murze Issue Seven
2016 Creative Update (UCA Farnham)
2012 My writings on The Impact of Diaghilev and Ballets Russes on visual art: held in the National Library of Art at London's V&A and in the archives of other major arts bodies here and overseas.
COLLECTIONS
Private collections in Avon, Berkshire, Devon, London, Oxon, Somerset, Surrey, Spain and the USA.
ART EDUCATION
Farnham UCA: Fine Art BA (Hons)
2025 July/Aug: summer season, visiting arts tutor at Guildford Institute: illustrated art talks for adults/children's sessions.
" June: open call exhibition The Shape of Now, Zari Gallery, Newman Street, Fitzrovia, London, curator Georgina Dhillon
" open call Gardens of Life exhibition (1st series) Posk Gallery, Hammersmith, curatorJola Maria Mroszvzyk
" May: group stARTle exhibition at Farnham Potteries, Farnham
" " : Joining Noisy Women collective in multi-arts performative event, Leigh-on-Sea (see below)
" Feb: Bangor Music Festival, artist in residence (see below)
" BEEP catalogue of longlisted artists selected for 2024 biennial exhibition "I won't stay in a world without love."
LIVE IMPRO PAINTING/LIVE MUSIC
2025 May: Joining Noisy Women collective in multi-arts performative event, Leigh-on-Sea www.noisywomenpresent.co.uk/
Feb: Artist in Residence, the 25th Bangor Music Festival of new, contemporary and experimental music:
- Music the Muse solo exhibition of my abstract music paintings
- collaboration with composers/musicians to live-paint new music in the moment
- performance of new music inspired by my paintings www.bangormusicfestival.org.uk/bangor-music-festival-2025/
2022 July Live Painting of flamenco Performance at Battersea Spanish (Spanish and Latin Cultural Centre)
batterseaspanish.com/events/annual-student-flamenco-performance/
2022 Thurs 17 June at restaurant 106 Baker Street in the sound/art lab, live painting vibes of DJ Pedro Suave on canvas welcoming and spurring on keen private party guests to add their own creative mark. With participating artist Lizy Bending (in botanicals room) for EVENTSATHOLMES/ www.coalitionpresents.com/
Feeling the Beat:
2022 May: live visual art/music/ poetry workshop with accompanying 'painting music' joint exhibition
April: live multi-arts performance " " " " " "
2021: Artist in /residence - Radford Rhythm and Blues Festival, Somerset
FILMING
2021: TV appearance in art slot in Great British Railways BBC TV series with Michael Portillo in episode broadcast Friday 30 August, BBC2.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7kDjLYem8Q&list=PLxQ8F81rvGmdk53Yk6bsUH-A84B_7opqk&index=4
AWARD
2012 Art Jazzed Up: international competition to listen to submit a CD design for selected jazz music, Trinity School, Croydon, artist Alan Carlyon Smith and jazz radio broadcasterAlban Low.
JOINT COLLABORATIONS
2023 May/June: Phenomenal Female Exhibition, The Bookery Gallerie, Marylebone
2022 Cocktails and Sensory evening
June - with artist Lizy Bending at restaurant 106 Baker Street, me in sound/art lab, live-painting DJ Pedro Suave music and interacting with many private party guests, 6-9pm.
Music the Muse at the Menuhin:
May - July: artists Aurelie Freoua, Gwen Kassenaar and Chris Holley wow concert-goers at this prestigious venue each with their similar and yet oh so different approaches to expressing music via painting.
2022 Feeling the Beat:
April/May: joint exhibition accompanying workshop and performance) South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell
April: live multi-arts performance with accompanying 'painting music' exhibition
May: live visual art/music/ poetry workshop " " " " "
2021 Feeling the Beat:
October: Workshop - artists and musicians share with students how to express live music in their own in-the-moment art
2021 Feeling the Beat:
July: Painting live music online seminar and history of art relating to music with artist Aurelie Freoua and musicians, led by curator Loucia Manopoulou at South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell.
2021: Feeling the Beat: March to end June: virtual exhibition: Aurelie Freoua/Chris Holley - paintings about music, dance and poetry www.southhillpark.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/
2021 Feeling the Beat:
February: Painting live music online and In-Conversation with artist Aurelie Freoua and musicians, led by curator Loucia Manopoulou at South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell. See event recording at www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx-Cr_2vUXQ
EXHIBITIONS since 2012
EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS
2021 Threshold, d Contemporary, Grafton Street, Mayfair, London
2017/18 Rhythm Runs Riot, The International Yehudi Menuhin Music School, Surrey
2016 Rhythm Runs Rife, Music School, Wellington College, Berks, invited by Edward Twohig,
Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers/trustee, Bankside Gallery, London
2012 AWARD WIN: Art Jazzed Up: international exhibition and competition to listen to and submit a CD design for selected jazz music,
Trinity School, Croydon, Alan Carlyon Smith/Alban Low.
2012 Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London, my painting selected by panel member and abstract artist, Albert Irwin
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 Music the Muse, abstract music paintings, Bangor Music Festival
2017/18 Rhythm Runs Riot, The Yehudi Menuhin Music School: Concert Hall, Cobham
2016 Rhythm Runs Rife, Music School, Wellington College, Berks, invitation by Edward Twohig, Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-
Printmakers/trustee, Bankside Gallery, London
2015 Interpreting Terpsichore, Peacock Gallery, Reading
2014 Rhythm and Resonance, Henley Business School
2013 Dancer, Henley Studios, Duke Street, Henley-on-Thames
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 stARTLE The Pottery, Farnham., jamshac Collective
2024 Routes, Casa Branca, Portugal
2022 Feeling the Beat, (collaborative exhibition accompanying workshop and performance) South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell
2021 Made It, The Pottery, Farnham., jamshac Collective
2019 Worlds Apart, Lewisham Art House, jamshac Collective
2018 Standing in the Light, Guildford Cathedral,KAN KAN Collective
2017 Threshold, Espacio Gallery, E2, KAN KAN Collective,
2016 Naturally Speaking, South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell, KAN KAN Collective, Bracknell,
2016, Melting Pot, Wellington College, Berks, KAN KAN Collective
2016 Other Worlds, Riverhouse Art Centre Gallery, Walton-on-Thames, Jamshac Collective,
2014 Ballets Russes Celebration Exhibition, Shaw Gallery, Trinity Whitgift School, Croydon
2012 Weather Art and Music Festival, Reading
OPEN EXHIBITIONS
2025: Summer: Gardens of Life exhibition. Details to follow - Jola Maria Mroszvzyk
2024: Beep Painting Biennial Exhibition: to date my paintings (on stipulated musical theme) long listed, short list results awaited
2024 The Secret Salon IV, artist led Andree Adley, Peckham Safe House, Peckham
2024: The Dark Side, artist led Boomer Gallery, London Bridge
2023: Derelict, Peckham Safe House, Uncovered Collective
2023 Southwark Park Open Exhibition
2023 Heat, artist led studio: Rupturexibit, Hampton Wick, Kingston, London
2022 Inside the Cage (in support of MIND) Blue House Yard, Wood Green, London N22
2022 Contemporary, Boomer Gallery, Tooley Street, London Bridge
2021 What is Art, Boomer Gallery, Tooley Street, London Bridge
2021 Threshold, d Contemporary, Grafton Street, Mayfair
2020 Open 2020, Littlehampton Museum (virtual exhibition)
2020 Bringing Us Together, South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell
2020 Be Connected, Canterbury Museum Art Gallery
2019 100 Exhibition, Steamship Artist Project Space, Blackwall, London, Steamship artists' space
2019 Connections, Espacio Gallery, London E1
2019 Summer Salon, Islington Arts Factory
2019 Ultra, Bargehouse, Bankside, London, Free Painters and Sculptors' Collective
2018 Fusion IV, The Cult House, Candid Arts, Islington,
2017 Fusion III, Cult House, Candid Arts, Islington
2017 Disponere, Fifth Base Gallery, Brick Lane
2016 Fusion, Espacio Gallery, London E1, KAN KAN Collective
2016 Red, Chroma Collections Artist Space, Peckham
2016 Summer Exhibition, Exhibit Here, Menier Gallery, London
2015 Open, Free Painters and Sculptors
2014 Art Weeks, The Jam Factory Arts Centre, Oxford
2014 Resonance, Bath Fringe Arts Festival
2013 Resonance, The Ark, Basingstoke
2013 Summer Open, South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell
2012 The Women's Art Show, Fairfields Art Centre, Basingstoke
2012 Rising Stars, New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham
2012 Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London, selected by panel member and abstract artist, Albert Irwin
ART TALKS
- 2024 May: adult art sessions for Berkshire Libraries: Unpacking Art I - lifting the lid on extremes in portraiture in parallel with exhibitions Frank Auerbach and John Singer Sargent exhibitions
- 2023 April-Aug: adult and children's art sessions for Berkshire Libraries: Unpacking Art I, II and III and Let's Colour In I, II and III
- 2022 Feb-May 2022: online arts sessions for adults and children continue...
- 2021 Lifting the Sky: fun, accessible and inspirational virtual adult and children's sessions on the arts.
- Various dates/years - My Art Residency with the Guna Yala: Wokingham Library and Farnham Eco Cinema.
- Various dates/years -The Impact of Diaghilev and Ballets Russes on the Visual Arts: Wokingham Arts Evenings; Trinity School, Croydon; two intakes of the London Russian Ballet School
RESIDENCIES
2024 Other Lands, Other Sounds art/music collaboration residency, Casa Branca, Portugal
2021 Avon, UK, artist in residence - Radford Rhythm and Blues Festival, Nr Bath
2019 Panama, living with the indigenous Guna Yala people La Wayaka international residency, https://www.lawayakacurrent.com
2015 Sicily, international murals residency, http://granitimurales.org
COMMISSIONS
Berkshire, Oxon, Surrey and the USA.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2022 LandEscape online magazine special issue issuu.com/landescapeartpress/docs/vol-70
2019 WOMEN: Inspirational Quotes and Creative Responses
2019 Artemis Poetry Magazine: article by poet Myra Schneider re our mutually inspired work. The creative alliance endures...
2019 Murze Issue Seven
2016 Creative Update (UCA Farnham)
2012 My writings on The Impact of Diaghilev and Ballets Russes on visual art: held in the National Library of Art at London's V&A and in the archives of other major arts bodies here and overseas.
COLLECTIONS
Private collections in Avon, Berkshire, Devon, London, Oxon, Somerset, Surrey, Spain and the USA.
ART EDUCATION
Farnham UCA: Fine Art BA (Hons)