ABOUT
Curtis Holder (born Leicester, 1968) is a London-based artist who works primarily in graphite and coloured pencil to create large-scale portraits and figurative works on paper.
Taking inspiration from intimate conversations with the people he draws, Holder’s multilayered pencil portraits are dynamically tender, emerging in a wayward series of febrile lines to reveal his subjects’ form, movement and emotional intent. Preliminary pencil marks remain on the paper as part of his energetic process of capturing fleeting gestures and emotions with sensitivity and raw honesty.
In 2020, Holder achieved widespread recognition by winning the prestigious Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year competition, with judges praising his work as “magical” and “startlingly new”. Since then, he has continued to garner critical acclaim and awards, including The John Ruskin Prize which he won in 2024. Holder has exhibited widely in the UK and in Paris. His work is held in private and public collections including the National Portrait Gallery, the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Soho House and the National Theatre where he became the theatre’s first ever artist-in-residence in 2022.
Holder, who studied at Kingston University and Central Saint Martins, London, is a member of Contemporary British Portrait Painters (CBPP), The Society of Graphic Fine Art (SGFA), The Pastel Society (PS) and an honorary member of the Hesketh Hubbard Art Society.
Solo and selected exhibitions include: Silent Echoes, Spoken Truths: Curtis Holder, Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds (2024-25); Curtis Holder: Drawing Carlos Acosta, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Birmingham (2024-25); Curtis Holder: Portraits of Brotherhood, Guildford House Gallery, Guildford (2024); The Makers: Portraits from Backstage, National Theatre, London (2023); Something Unspoken, 45 Park Lane, London (2021-22).
Selected group exhibitions include: ING Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London (2024); The John Ruskin Prize, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London (2024); The Guildford Open, Guildford House Gallery, Guilford (2023); RBSA Drawing Prize, RBSA Gallery, Birmingham (2023); Drawing (Paper) Show, Bridewell Studios & Gallery, Liverpool (2023); Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London (2022); Wells Art Contemporary, Wells Cathedral, Somerset (2022); The Derwent Art Prize, gallery@oxo, London (2022); Portrait Artist of the Year, Compton Verney, Warwickshire (2022); Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Mall Galleries, London (2022, 2023 & 2024); Contemporary British Portrait Painters, The Department Store, Brixton (2022 & 2024), The Pastel Society, Mall Galleries, London (2021, 2022, 2023 & 2024), The Society of Graphic Fine Art, Mall Galleries, London (2021, 2022, 2023 & 2024).
Awards include: The John Ruskin Prize (2024); The Tom Coates Memorial Prize, The Pastel Society (2024); Guildford House Open (2023); St Cuthbert’s Mill Award, Wells Art Contemporary (2022); The Anthony J Lester Art Critic Award, The Pastel Society (2022); The Frank Herring & Sons Award, The Pastel Society (2022); Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year (2020).
Video: At work in the studio
Which coloured pencils do I use?
Discover which pencils Curtis uses in a life drawing session and in the studio.
Derwent Artist Ambassador
As a Derwent Artist Ambassador, Curtis promotes the art of drawing and helps Derwent to develop products that enable all artists to do great work.