gemma.holzer
ArtEvol 2025 / Gemma Holzer
Strung Up , 2025 Oil and acrylic on wood, mild steel, hardware 243 × 60 × 60 cm
Gemma Holzer is a Dutch-American artist based in London, having obtained an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art in 2025. Her practice explores the expanded field of painting through a variety of media, including oils, acrylics, steel and ceramics. Holzer’s work blends personal nostalgia with reimagined histories. Her pieces evoke ancient cultures, featuring idols of hybrid or unfamiliar creatures that inhabit ambiguous, often placeless, spaces. These forms allude to artefacts associated with funerary practices, vessels that preserve long-forgotten memories. Holzer draws inspiration from standing stones and other Neolithic sites, relics from distant pasts that still occupy physical space in the present. This dialogue between past and present is echoed in her paintings, where references to ancient imagery are positioned alongside newly manufactured forms, creating a layered visual narrative.
Artwork Introduction
Strung Up references stacked stone structures, also known as cairns. In this piece, the rocks are pulled apart and held in place by steel chains. The work presents a sharp contrast between the historical and the contemporary. This tug of war is emphasised through a contemporary visual language that juxtaposes ancient source material such as standing stones.
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