Holly Greenwood

Holly Greenwood is a Sydney-based artist, whose work is steeped in a uniquely Australian sense of place.

Pub culture continues to be a source of fascination for Holly Greenwood. For the artist, this is a timely subject in a world where human connection has been eroded by the pandemic and where our reliance on technology has exacerbated a sense of isolation from each other. A pub provides a space to connect with strangers. In a pub you can let your guard down and conversations can reveal innermost thoughts.

Stories overheard in the various pubs that are Greenwood’s subject matter are hinted at in the titles of her works. These stories and others like it, divulged at the pub in bids for connection and community, form the woven fabric of society and Greenwood consciously attempts to honour these memories through slippery paint.

Since graduating from COFA in 2011, Greenwood has exhibited extensively within Australia, gaining increasing attention as a contemporary Australian artist. In 2022 she was named a finalist in the prestigious Sir John Sulman Prize and in 2021 she was named a finalist in the Portia Geach Memorial Prize. In 2019 was awarded the Hill End Residency in addition to a finalist position in the highly competitive Brett Whiteley travelling art scholarship in 2018 and 2017.