Jim Holyoak

Jim Holyoak is a Montréal-based artist (born in Michigan, raised in BC.) His discipline is comprised of drawing-installations and book-works, exploring the bridges and boundaries between perception and fantasy, humans and other animals, deep time and the present. Holyoak’s drawings and ink-paintings range in size from postcards and zines to dense paper-environments, tailored to the architecture of the rooms that it occupies. 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. Holyoak has attended artist-residencies in New York, Los Angeles, Mumbai, Banff, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, The Netherlands, and throughout Norway. His work has been exhibited widely in Europe and North America, including the 2011 Québec Triennial at the Musée d’art contemporain, the Yes, Naturally exhibition at the GEM Museum of Contemporary Art in The Hague, and at Tegnerforbundet (Drawing Association) in Oslo.

The artist gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, for a Project Grant used to create this exhibition. He also wishes to thank the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec Residency, for his 2015-16 residency in Mumbai, India, where this project was originally conceived.