Biography

lives in — Nashville, TN

Emily Holt was born in Memphis, TN in 1975. She received her Bachelor of Fine Art Degree from Middle Tennessee State University in 1999 and her Masters of Fine Art from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2001. Her studio practice includes painting, drawing, collage, wood-working, sculpture, puppetry, installation and book art.

Emily moved to Nashville, TN in 2003 and has been teaching middle school and high art at the University School of Nashville for the past 23 years. Her studio and teaching practice often go hand in hand. The materials and class projects she creates for middle and high school students spill over into her work and vice versa.

Artist Statement

My work is a collection of objects made from paper and found material to suggest open-ended narratives on themes civic, architectural, and cartographic. The paper assemblages are made from large sheets of paper that have been treated with graphite, wax or paint. After the papers have accumulated enough textures and colors on both sides of the sheets, I then break down the paper into more manageable sizes only to be reconstructed back into large scale multi-layered assemblages. My process for how I build the assemblages relies on intuition, improvisation, adaptation, play and discovery. I cut, fold, stitch, glue, hide, reveal, reverse, tuck, embed, layer, build and destroy until I find a solution to the puzzle.

Another part of my creative practice is finding artifacts on my walks. My habit is to observe the ground and notice discarded items scattered along my path. I hunt, search, scavenge, take, receive, dig, gather and glean from what is unwanted, lost or thrown away. Brightly colored wire, broken pottery, jewelry boxes and toys are beautiful on their own, but also offer utility as raw material for making art. These found objects find their way into my works as books and sculptures. The final pieces are stages or theatrical sets. Untold stories are layered into the objects. The viewer is cast as an actor and their lines are internal and unheard.

Cirriculum Vitae

Education

2001 MFA Studio Art
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC

1999 BFA Studio Art
Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN

Exhibitions

2025 Lossless Found

Julia Martin Gallery, Nashville, TN

2022 Nashville Art Teachers: Beyond the Classroom, Frist Art Museum Nashville, TN

2005 Fragile Species, Frist Art Museum Nashville, TN

Teaching Experience

2003-Present
University School of Nashville Middle School Ceramics and 3-D Art High School Book Art

Grants and Residencies

2024-2025 Artist-in-Residence, Arcade Arts, Nashville, TN
2024 Artist-in-Residence, Joan Mitchell Center, New Orleans, LA 2001, Joan Mitchell MFA Grant