Jim Holyoak is a drawer and writer, based in British Columbia, Canada. His discipline consists of room-sized drawing installations, book arts and ink-painting. In parallel to his solo practice, Holyoak has orchestrated numerous collaborative drawing projects, sometimes involving hundreds of people drawing together. He has attended artist-residencies around the world including New York, Mumbai, Québec, Finland, Sweden, Iceland and throughout Norway. His drawings blur plein-air observation with the imagined to create otherworldly beings and places. Though the content of his work ranges from the biological to the phantasmagorical, his persistent interests include metamorphosis, human empathy for other species and the challenge of fathoming deep time. Holyoak’s work has been circulated widely in Europe and North America, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Montréal, the GEM Museum of Contemporary Art in The Hague, theLatvian Centre for Contemporary Art in Rīga, the Carnegie Mellon International Drawing Symposium in Pittsburgh and the Midlands Arts Centre in Birmingham, UK. “Though the content of my work ranges from the biological to the phantasmagorical, there is a persistent interest in human empathy for other species, and in the difficulty of fathoming deep time – the world millions of years ago, and the world ahead. The animals I contemplate most are the species that never existed, that no longer exist, and those that are on the brink of extinction. For example, dinosaurs fascinate me because they are completely real and completely imaginary – they are monsters for real. This tension between what is real and imaginary, what once existed and no longer exists, is the uniting principle in all my work.” – Jim Holyoak Artist CV Education2011 MFA in Drawing and Painting, Concordia University, Montréal, QC2007 Apprentice of master ink painter Shen Ling Xiang, Yangshuo, China2004 Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours, University of Victoria, British Columbia 2014 Diploma in Elfs and Hidden People, Icelandic Elfschool, ReykjavíkSelected Solo Exhibitions2018 Book of Nineteen Nocturnes, Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art, Kelowna, BC 2016 Nowhereworlds, bG Gallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, CA2016 The Thicket, Centre Clark artist-run-centre, Montréal, QC2013 Lycanthrope, Galerie Donald Browne, Montréal, QC2012 Oblivion Monstrosus, Bleicher/Golightly Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 2011 Holocene, Faculty of Fine Arts Gallery, Montréal, QC2010 My Minotaur, Bleicher/Golightly Gallery, Santa Monica, CA2007 Nothing is Wasted But the Whale Itself, Truxtop Gallery, Silverlake, CA 2006 Seasons in the Sun (Fall), New General Catalog, Brooklyn, NY2006 Aquarium of Night, Hatch Gallery, Pasadena, CA2003 October Blizzard, The Fifty-Fifty Arts Collective, Victoria, BCSelected Collaborative Exhibitions2021 Walloways, Teckningsmuseet (The Museum of Drawings), with Matt Shane, Laholm, Sweden (forthcoming)2019 The Hills Are Shadows, with Matt Shane, Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham, UK2019 Overworld, with Matt Shane, Galerie Deux Poissons, Montréal, QC2019 Manif d’art 9 – La biennale de Québec, with Matt Shane, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, QC2017 Forestrial Brain, with Matt Shane, Open Space Arts Society, Victoria, BC2016 Wodwo, in situ installation, with Matt Shane, Musée d’art contemporain, Montréal, QC2016 Sumarryk (Summer Dust), Verksmiðjan, Hjalteyri, Iceland2014 Six Ghosts Spell Unknown Alphabet, Tegnerforbundet (Drawing Association), Oslo, Norway 2014 Curtains and Bridges, Frame Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA2013 Ja Natuurlijk (Yes, Naturally), with Matt Shane, Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, Netherlands 2011 Québec Triennial: The Work Ahead of Us, with Matt Shane, Musée d’art contemporain, Montréal, QC2011 When the Summer is Winter and the Winter is Winter, with Matt Shane, Walter Phillips Galley, Banff, AB2010 Big Fleas Have Little Fleas, with Matt Shane & Airom Bleicher, bG Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 2009 Greyscale Rainbow, with Matt Shane, Articule artist-run centre, Montréal, QC2006 Broken Arm, Long Shadow, with Airom Bleicher & Mike Saijo, Kristi Engle Gallery, Los Angeles, CA2004 The Utopic Dream of the Sun in a Box, with Matt Shane & Mike Anderson, The Down, Victoria, BCSelected Group Exhibitions2021 Overburden, Oxygen Art Centre, Nelson & Kootenay Gallery, Castlegar, BC 2019 The Room and TEN, bG Gallery, Santa Monica, CA2019 Aquarelle – Watercolour, Galerie McClure, Montréal, QC2011-20 (annually) Papier, art fair, Montréal, QC2016-19 Alptraum (Nightmare), wandering exhibition (17 locations, 21 countries), curated by MarcusSendlinger2018 The Sunshine Eaters, Onsite Gallery, OCAD University, Toronto, ON2018 Line Attack, The Hive, Los Angeles, CA2017 Survival Kit 9: Becoming an Apricot, Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, Rīga, Latvia 2017 The Wild, Galerie Maurits Van De Laar, The Hague, Netherlands2017 The Domain Beyond the Territory, Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain, Montréal, QC 2015 Grayscale Wonderland, Glass Garage Gallery + Bleicher/Gorman (bG) Gallery, Santa Monica, CA2014 Secret Emo Diary, SÍM Salurinn, Reykjavík, Iceland2014 Energy / Énergie, Foreman Gallery, Bishop’s University, Sherbrooke, QC2013 Gemak, Galerie Maurits Van De Laar, The Hague, Netherlands2013 Circle Logic, Bleicher/Golightly Gallery, Santa Monica, CA2012 Murmurer, Studio Baustelle, Berlin, Germany2012 Sleep of Reason, Yukon Arts Centre, Whitehorse, YK2012 Kauneus/Beauty, Mustarinda, Finland2012 The Inventory, Babel Kunst, Trondheim, Norway2010 Elimination of the Inbetween, Gallery Atsui, Vancouver, BC2010 The Cheaper Show No.9, Lower East Side Gallery, Vancouver, BC2010 Horror Vacui, Galerie McClure, Montréal, QC2005-08 contributor to monthly group shows, The Hive Gallery, Los Angeles, CA2008 The World Without Us, Glass Garage Gallery, West Hollywood, CA2007 Animalesque, Art Murmur, Los Angeles, CA2007 Fickle Hearts Grow Greener, Lower East Side Gallery, Vancouver, BC2007 Micro Gestalt, 207 Gallery, Manhattan, NY2006 The Max: Live Painting Show, Hangar 1018, Los Angeles, CA2006 Duotone Arts Festival, Kelowna, BC2006 Ergot Eryops, The Fifty-Fifty Arts Collective, Victoria, BC2006 Post-card Correspondence Art, Pterodactyl Studio & Gallery, Salt Spring Island, BC2005 The Max: Live Painting Show, Hangar 1018, Los Angeles, CA2004 (self) Publish or Perish, Open Space Arts Society, Victoria, BC2004 Everybody Get Down, The Down, Victoria, BC2003 Animalism, The Ministry of Casual Living, Victoria, BC2002 With My First Military Pay Cheque I’m Gonna Buy an X-box, The Brown House, Victoria, BCSelected Residencies and Symposia2021 Marpha Foundation, Mustang District, Nepal2019 Midlands Arts Centre, UK2018 Est-Nord-Est, Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, QC2017 Booklyn Artist Alliance, Brooklyn, USA2015-16 Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec Residency, Mumbai, India2014 SÍM (Association of Icelandic Visual Artists), Reykjavík, Iceland2014 DRAW2014: Why Draw Now? International Drawing Symposium, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh2013 Wander, The Hague, Netherlands2012 Je fixais des vertiges, Le 30e Symposium international d’art contemporain de Baie Saint-Paul, QC 2012 Nordisk Kunstnarsenter Dale (Nordic Artists’ Centre Dale), Norway2012 Mustarinda, Hyrynsalmi, Finland2012 Lademoen Kunstnerverksteder, Trondheim, Norway2012 Kunstnarhuset Messen, Ålvik, Norway2010 Figure in a Mountain Landscape (reprise), The Banff Centre, AB 2006 New General Catalog, Brooklyn, NYCollectionsArtexte (Montréal)Bamfield Marine Science CenterCarleton University Art GalleryEldfjallasafn Volcano Museum, Stykkishólmur, Iceland Musée d’art contemporain de MontréalMusée national des beaux-arts du QuébecMusée d’art contemporain des LaurentidesMusée d’art contemporain de baie-saint-paul QuébecRoyal Ontario Museum (Department of Fossils and Evolution)