Julia Holderness

Julia Holderness (b.1980 Aotearoa, New Zealand) lives and works in Ōtautahi Christchurch. She completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury in 2002 and an Honours in Visual Arts at AUT University, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland in 2015. In 2022 Holderness completed a Visual Arts PhD in practice-led research at AUT University. Her thesis titled “Ever Present Archiving: methodologies for art histories through invention, fabrication and social practice” explores archives and their construction of art-historical narratives.

Her practice and outputs are often collaborative and she works alongside both historic and current artists. In creating narratives that might or might not have existed – encompassing artists, groups, movements, and exhibitions – her research practice deliberates on the role of fiction in both the collection and interpretation of material histories. She critiques traditionally held divides between art historical scholarship and artistic fabrication. Through the use of invented personae, artworks and exhibitions, Holderness traces alternative histories of modernism in Aotearoa New Zealand. Her installations combine mixed media fabrications, often textile and ceramic making with historical materials from art and design archives. She also produces sound and text works within these installations. Holderness’s collaborative work as Fitts & Holderness has seen her participate in exhibitions and residencies both nationally and internationally.

Julia Holderness was awarded a Vice-Chancellor’s Doctoral Scholarship and won the Glaister Ennor Graduate Art Award in 2016. Other projects include her PhD exhibition Schemes for Vibrant Living at Te Wai Ngutu Kākā Gallery, AUT, The Studio, which was developed for Dunedin Public Art Gallery in 2021, Florence & Florence: Other Textile Histories presented at Ilam Campus Gallery in 2018 and Gallery 91 for SCAPE Public Art in 2017.

In 2023 Holderness took part in the exhibition Living Room, an exhibition with Objectspace Ōtautahi at the Sir Miles Warren Gallery, curated by Kim Paton and Caroline Billing exploring how we design and adorn domestic spaces as an act of self-expression. 

In 2024 Julia Holderness was included in the exhibition Modern Women: Flight of Time at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. Curated by Julia Waite this landmark exhibition highlights the leading role women artists have played in shaping the development of modern art in Aotearoa New Zealand. Holderness produced two vitrine installations, photographs and an audio work for the exhibition.

<