Ink, graphite and watercolour on Chinese paper

Jim Holyoak

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Jim Holyoak’s discipline consists primarily of drawing and writing, artists’ books and large-scale drawing installations. He received a BFA from the University of Victoria, an MFA from Concordia University, and studied as an apprentice to master ink-painter Shen Ling Xiang, in Yangshuo, China. In parallel to his solo practice, Holyoak has orchestrated numerous collaborative drawing projects, often with fellow artist Matt Shane, and sometimes involving hundreds of people drawing together. His work has circulated widely, including at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, La biennale de Québec, Tegnerforbundet (Drawing Association) in Oslo, KM21 (formerly the GEM Museum of Contemporary Art) in The Hague, the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art in Rīga, the Carnegie Mellon International Drawing Symposium in Pittsburgh, and the Teckningsmuseet (Museum of Drawings) in Sweden. Holyoak has attended artist residencies in New York, Los Angeles, Mumbai, The Netherlands, Sweden, Iceland, Finland, and throughout Norway. In 2023, his first graphic novel, ‘Book of 19 Nocturnes,’ will be published by Flask Press, and his work will be featured in the book ‘Drawing in the Present Tense’ (Thames & Hudson). Holyoak is presently based on the traditional, unceded territory of the sn̓ʕay̓ckstx Sinixt Arrow Lakes peoples, in the town of Nelson, BC, from where he teaches remotely at Emily Carr University of Art + Design.