Chloë Holt

Date of Birth:

17th April 1981

Education:

2007
Fellow of the RSA after winning the Student Design Awards

2003
Accepted at The Royal College of Art (MA Printed Textiles) 2003

2000 – 2003
The Manchester Metropolitan University (BA Hons Textile Design)

1999 – 2000
West Cheshire College (Fine Art Discipline)

1992 – 1999
Upton-by-Chester County High School

Qualifications:

Statement:

I'm interested in time and memory, objects silently disappearing into their surroundings. The beauty of surface decay. Trying to explore the human condition and what it means to be part of this natural world either through an innate symbolism or how we subconsciously view what surrounds us. I'm fascinated by landscape, I attempt to bring a sense of spirit into my work, concerned with emotion, my works are mainly abstract because they try to experience the elements. I have recently incorporated figurative aspects illustrating the need for skill in drawing and painting and the symbolism and meaning of placement of particular objects not normally seen in an ‘art’ context -the mundane and banal – these objects developing metaphor and narrative through the way I limit how they are viewed by the viewer.

Currently - Summer 2011 - You will currently find many symbols, some graphically obvious and some hidden within the paintings. It started with a trip to the historic and rural often unexplored side of Nevada desert - my photographs reveal symbolic references innate to the lives of the Native Indians and Cowboys. I found it fascinating how the cultures had crossed and deep down each has the same values of man and in the end the respect each other and understand each others perspective.
I became obsessed with symbols - how the can come in obvious and intuitive ways into our lives. I play with the way a symbol can almost appear to have meaning and be something entirely fabricated and meaningless but summon a sense of power and resonance within us.

"Myth is the hidden part of every story, the buried part, that region that is still unexplored because there are as yet no words to enable us to get there. Myth is nourished by silence as well as by words." - Italo Cavino

You will find my work physical in its mark making and surfaces, specialising in works on paper - from mono-print, screen-print, oil paint, pulped paper, felt, wax to sand and sawdust.  I like the way your material and what it can do affects the outcome - I have an acute awareness for painterly activity. I'm interested in making gestural blots and marks often for purely expressive ends, even to create purely abstract and emotionally charged compositions. This links tangibly to my Textile Design background and my love of tactile works.

My work is poetic and beautiful, a degree of beauty is essential to excite the eyes and mind. I like there to be a rhythm in the composition and painting style which flows your eyes across the painting. I am involved with colour, shape and texture and the interaction and balance between them - often I have a fascination with the purely visual, revealing to people what I see and think subconsciously as your minds eye will automatically deem certain things unimportant, acting more on an emotional level and exploring the personality of the subject and the essence of its being.

The way that art can be very simple in content, just texture and colour - in obvious terms telling you nothing, but it ignites emotions or memories and feelings through suggestive elements and psychological associations, even with something as minimal as a single colour.

"Colours are lights' suffering and joy" - Goethe

Making a painting or work is like collecting a pebble from a walk you love, as a reminder of your moment - the difference is, a pebble on a mantle piece tells no tales of a place on its own - it sits in silence, only your memories remain…yet a painting can be busy and loud with emotions and visual language and create new feelings and invoke memories from the past. "People should leave behind all thoughts and words so their minds can be open and free and their senses truly aware for just a few seconds or minutes to fell as I felt."

Artists that inspire me are Paul Klee; David Hockney; Antonio Tapies; Peter Lanyon; Cy Twombly; Anselm Keifer.

Exhibitions and experiences:

2011

2009

2007

2004

2003

2002

2000

1999

1998

1997