Holly Slingsby
I am a visual artist based in Swansea, Wales. Through performance, video, costume and painting I seek to give visible form to unseen and overlooked phenomena. These range from belief in invisible saints and deities to the experience of childlessness - and sometimes the combination of both.
I am fascinated with mysticism, scared spaces and ceremonies. I often work site-responsively, at locations including churches, gardens and ancient ruins. My video practice allows me to transport viewers to these spaces and to emphasise particular qualities of the actions I perform in them. My visual language reflects a fascination with iconography, drawing on biblical imagery, mythologies, and contemporary culture, with a particular emphasis on representations of women and the implications of those for society and self-image.
Much of my work explores my lived experience of infertility, creating a visual language for this through an eclectic combination of art historical imagery, medical material and ritualistic embodied action. I have recently examined parallels between these experiences and other forms of loss, such as iconoclasm and ecological breakdown. In the aftermath of grief, I am interested in artmaking as a conduit for healing and transformation.
Education and Awards
2025 International Opportunities Fund, Arts Council Wales
2023 Exeter Contemporary Open, join winner
2022 Film London Jarman Award (nominated)
2022 a-n The Artists Information Company, Time Space Money bursary
2019 Project Grant, Arts Council England
2019 a-n The Artists Information Company, Time Space Money bursary
2017 Grants for the Arts, Arts Council England
2015 a-n The Artists Information Company, Go and See bursary
2010 - MFA Fine Art Media, Slade School of Fine Art, London
2006 - BFA (Hons) Fine Art, The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2024 - Felled, yet unfurling, Art + Christianity at St Mary’s Priory, Abergavenny
2019 - Approaching Virditas (Epilogue), CRATE, Margate
2018 - Approaching Viriditas, Margate Festival, Margate
2016 - A Song of Ascents, FEM_16 and Bòlit, Centre d'Art Contemporani, Girona, Spain
2016 - The High Places, commission for KV-TV, Kunst Vardo
2016 - Knotted Mass II, Finishing Touch, London (with publication)
2015 - Knotted Mass, DKUK, London
2015 - Behind the Curtain, Tintype Gallery, London
2012 - PROPS FOR THE SKY, SHIFT. , London
2009 - It Was Gravity Which Pulled Us Down, Christ Church Spitalfields, London
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025 - Swansea Performance Weekend, Glynn Vivian, Swansea
2025 - International Forum of Performance Art, Drama, Greece
2025 - MaMa Festival, Madremanya, Catalonia
2024 - Ritual/Bodies, St Pancras Church, London
2024 - Ruthin International Art Festival
2024 - Experimentica, Chapter, Cardiff
2023 - Exeter Contemporary Open, Phoenix Exeter
2023 - In Search of the Miraculous, Norwich and Norfolk Festival and screening at England & Co, London
2022 - Abbas Zahedi, Waiting With {Sonic Support}, Frieze London
2022 - 40 Years, South Square Gallery, Bradford
2022 - ENTRANCE, Resort Gallery, Margate
2021 - Sunken Ecologies, Margate NOW
2021 - Stations 2021, Arts Chaplaincy Projects
2021 - The Spiritual Exercises II, Arts Chaplaincy Projects
2020 - Visions in the Nunnery, The Nunnery Gallery, London
2020 - Super Market, Circus Artspace, Inverness
2020 - The Spiritual Exercises, Arts Chaplaincy Projects
2019 - How small a thought, Margate Festival, Margate
2019 - The Immeasurable, Thames-Side Studios Gallery, London
2019 - Transitions, Cavò, Trieste
2019 - Fertility Fest, Barbican, London
2019 - EmBEDded Stories, Kosar Contemporary, Bristol
2018 - Ecstasy in Norwich, Lower Green, Norwich
2018 - Radio Thamesmead (RTM fm), TACO, London
2018 - Visions of Science, The Edge, University of Bath
2018 - Parlour Geometrique, Chiswick House and Gardens, London
2018 - Nit de Performance, Bòlit, Centre d'Art Contemporani, Girona, Spain
2018 - Transitional States, Project Space Plus, Lincoln; Peltz Gallery, London; CCC Barcelona; and LABS Bologna
2017 - Venice Agendas, Turner Contemporary, Margate
2017 - Festal Favours, Charlbury Festival, Oxfordshire
2017 - Divergence, Sassoon Gallery, Strangelove Festival, Folkestone
2016 - Parlour Arboretum, Harcourt Arboretum, Oxfordshire
2016 - Beyond Seven Mountains, Fermynwoods Contemporary Art, Thoroughsale and Hazel Woods, Corby
2016 - ALT (Art Licks Trading), shop and performance event, Safehouse 1, London
2016 - Lupercalia Live, Bosse & Baum, London
2016 - Duration & Dialogue, Katzman Contemporary, Toronto
2015 - FEM 15, La Bonne, Barcelona
2015 - Foam, Grand Union, Birmingham; Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland
2014 - The Centre for Remote Possibilities, Matt's Gallery, London
2014 - You cannot step twice into the same river, Pump House Gallery, London
2014 - Foam, Project/Number, London; AND/OR, London; Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge
2014 - Art (After) Death, Highgate Cemetary, London
2014 - EC1 and WC1 Galleries Day, Tintype, London
2014 - AFTER/HOURS/DROP/BOX LIVE, Spike Island, Bristol
2013 - AFTER/HOURS/DROP/BOX LIVE, Modern Art Oxford
2013 - My Head is an Animal, South Square, Bradford
2013 - Art Licks Weekend: Stop, Look, Listen!, Peckham, London
2013 - Black Maria Showcase, Black Maria, London
2013 - Lore of the Land, Dorchester Abbey, Oxfordshire
2013 - Stage Night, The Horse Hospital, London
2013 - Totemic Festival, Freud Museum, London
2012 - Art Licks Annual, ICA, London
2012 - LIPA, ICA, London
2012 - LUPA 7, LUPA, London
2012 - SUPERNORMAL, Brazier's Park, Oxfordshire
2011 - Acoustic Sessions, shift. at Angus Hughes Gallery, London
2011 - More Soup and Tart, The Barbican, London
2011 - Parlour Principia, Swedenborg House, London
2011 - POW!, FOLD Gallery, London 2010 - Babel, WW Gallery, London
2010 - Equal Night, The Dissenters' Chapel and Gallery, London
2010 - FEM 10, Gresol Art, Girona, Spain
2010 - Live Friday, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford
2009 - Both Ends Burning, WW Gallery, London
2009 - Making Mistakes, Paradise Row, London
2008 - East End Collaborations, Queen Mary University, London
2007 - Zelda Rubenstein, Paradise Row/ 7-9 Princelet Street, London
2005 - Montana Butch, Great Eastern Hotel, London
Helping Artists Keep Going
Axis is an artist-led charity supporting contemporary visual artists with resources, connection, and visibility.